


The Bright Sessions Hogwarts AU

by TheGoatWithAPen



Category: The Bright Sessions (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, I use character from other podcasts if I need to so watch out for random cameos, If you are a fan of Damien or Damien/Mark then sorry pals but Damien is kind of The WorstTM in this, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, The first chapter kind of sucks so skip that if you want, You know what let's add in the relationship tags now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 02:49:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 59,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14322930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGoatWithAPen/pseuds/TheGoatWithAPen
Summary: Chloe Turner had always known that she was going to be a wizard.Caleb Michaels was more excited than he had ever been before.Samantha Barnes couldn't have been more relieved to be returning to Hogwarts.So The Bright Sessions Fandom needed a Hogwarts AU and so I decided to do one.This will basically follow all the characters through their years at Hogwarts.I kinda suck at summaries but the story is good and will be a multi chapter fic.





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Okay just for clarification,   
> Chloe, Caleb, Adam, Rose-First Year  
> Mark, Sam, Frank, Damien-Second Year  
> Joan, Wasdworth, Green-Third Year  
> Enjoy!

Chloe Turner had always known that she was going to be a wizard. Her mother had told her every day. ‘Chloe, there is a big special, secret world out there, and one day you’ll be part of it,’ that’s what she’d been told. And now she was joining that world. She had her wand, her robes, and her cat, Roger, whom her mother had given to her as a present. Chloe wasn’t sure what she was most excited about when it came to Hogwarts but getting to know new people was definitely something near the top.

She forged through the crowd. Here mum had just dropped her off with a ‘now Chloe I expect lots of letters. And remember, don’t go telling anyone about our little secret.’ Chloe had nodded dutifully and headed off into the crowd. She knew no one but she was sure that she would find someone eventually. She had always been good at making friends.   
But there was a big crowd of people who either seemed to know each other already, or not be interested in friendship. Which meant that this might be hard. There was no way that she was going to take the train to Hogwarts by herself. That would be far too lonely for her. But it would have to take a miracle to find a friend right awa-

“Woah!” Chloe had just walked right into a boy and had nearly lost her balance. He helped her stay stable.  
“Are you okay?” He asked her. Chloe looked at him. He looked friendly enough although he was very tall and sort of intimidating. She wondered what year he was in.

“Are you okay?” The boy repeated his question with more worry. Chloe shook herself.  
“Yeah I’m alright. I just wasn’t watching where I was going. I’m a bit of a klutz.” She smiled brightly at him. He appeared to be relieved.  
“Well that’s good. I wouldn’t want to be hurting someone on their first day at Hogwarts,” he said with a smile. She frowned.  
“How do you know it’s my first day?” He grinned at her sheepishly.  
“Well no offense, but you don’t look old enough to be a second year. Plus, I’ve never seen you around, and I don’t mean to brag, but I like to think of myself as an observant person.” Chloe smiled at him.

“What’s your name?” she asked. He extended a hand.   
“Frank Sawyer. I’m a second year in Gryffindor. What about you?”   
“Chloe Turner. I’m a first year, like you guessed. You must be as observant as you think.” He grinned at her.   
“Well that’s good.” 

He turned to look at the clock hanging in the station.   
“It appears to be time to board the train. Do you have anyone to sit with?” he asked. She shook her head.  
“No, I am friendless at the moment.” He smiled.  
“Well then it appears that we have something in common. Come and sit with me. You seem like you would be good company.” He turned and pushed his trolley toward the train. Chloe immediately followed suit. She already had a friend. This would definitely be a good year.   
************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Caleb Michaels was more excited than he had ever been before. He had grown up his whole life hoping that there was something more out there. He had always loved fantasy books and he just wanted to know that there was some magic in the world. And then he had gotten a letter from a man who introduced himself as Carlos Palmer and he was the Herbology teacher at a school for magic. 

Caleb had freaked out. Not in the terrified way but in the ‘holy shit that’s so awesome’ way. His sister had been so jealous. Caleb had joked at the time that she probably wasn’t magic but before he had left he had told he hoped she was. And he did. Seeing his sister as a wizard would be awesome and it was very clear that that was a life that she wanted to lead. But it wasn’t her turn yet. 

Right now, he was very excited but also super nervous. He was alone in a crowd of wizards with a pet owl called Merlin and a wand that he had been told would suffice him very well by an old woman called Josie who seemed to know Professor Palmer well enough that she could invite him to a dinner with his husband. Professor Palmer had helped him find all the things he would need and had told him many stories about how great Hogwarts was. 

Caleb was mainly worried about two things. That he wouldn’t be good at magic and he would be sent home, and that he wouldn’t have any friends. Caleb was a very social person. He loved people. The problem was that he wasn’t really good at talking to strangers. He would always seem to stuff things up and upset them. That was why at school he stuck with the kids in his football team. He could just chill with them without having to know them very well. But now he was starting at a whole new school where he didn’t know anyone. 

Caleb looked at his wrist and frowned. He wasn’t allowed to bring his electronic watch with him. Carlos had told him that despite the many efforts of both students and official government wizards they hadn’t been able to get electronics and magic to mix, and as a result no one could bring their electronics to school. Which meant no TV or phone calls. His parents had been upset about that. Now he would have to send them letters by owl. He looked around the station he saw a big analogue clock hanging on the wall that said that the time was five to eleven. He’d better get on the train. 

As Caleb got on the train is was immediately obvious that he wasn’t going to be able to get a compartment to himself. It already seemed to be packed with people and there were still people walking the halls. He checked through all the compartments for one with someone who seemed to be just as lost as him. He passed one with a pair of kids who looked like siblings and another girl in it but they all looked older at him and perfectly at home so he moved on. 

At last he came to a compartment with a lone boy in it. He looked about first year which was good. He was already in his school robes and he seemed to give off an air of not wanting to be disrupted. However, the train had just started moving and Caleb needed someone to sit with. He pulled open the door.  
“Hey, can I sit here?” Caleb asked nervously. The boy looked up, surprised.  
“Um, yeah, go ahead.” Caleb stepped into the compartment and shut the door. The boy stared at him.

Caleb sat down across from the boy.  
“Um, hey, I’m Caleb, Caleb Michaels.” Caleb hoped that he didn’t come off as too weird. The boy smiled at him, much to Caleb’s relief.  
“I’m Adam, Adam Hayes. It’s good to meet you Caleb,” he said, the smile still on his face. Caleb returned it.  
“Cool.” As Caleb looked at Adam giving him a smile he could start to believe that it would be a good year.   
************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Samantha Barnes couldn’t have more relieved to be returning to Hogwarts. It wasn't exactly like her home life was bad. She had two loving parents. She didn’t have any siblings and that was fine by her. Home life was good. It’s just that it wasn’t magical. There were no spells, or Quidditch games to watch. Worst of all, there were no friends. She didn’t have many friends at Hogwarts, but the way they made her feel included made up foe the lack in numbers of them. Quality over quantity as her parents always said.  
There were three friends that she had. Sarah, a Ravenclaw whom she shared a dorm room with, Joan, a Slytherin a year above Sam who was actually really nice once you got past her walls, and Mark, a Hufflepuff who seemed to light up the world whenever he entered a room. Sam had met Mark on the first day of school and they had been pretty much inseparable since. Sam had met Joan through Mark. Joan was his big sister and she was very protective of Mark. Mark pretended like he found it annoying but it was clear that he adored Joan. 

Sam moved through the crowd awkwardly. Her parents had already dropped her off and said goodbye. They made sure to remind her to send letters and keep them updated. As they were both muggles they were both very interested the magic world. Sam was only too happy to comply. The downside of them not wanting to go to the platform was that now she was alone and had to find Mark and Joan. She had no idea where they would be. She knew that they had muggle parents so they would also be alone. 

Suddenly she felt a hand tap her on her shoulder. She jumped in shock and as she spun around to face the person she tried to pull her wand out of her robes. But instead of some strange person or bully standing in front of her it was Mark Bryant with a massive grin on his face.  
“Hey Sam,” he said, still smiling. Sam sighed in relief.  
“Don’t scare me like that Mark,” she said as she swatted his arm. He laughed.  
“Sorry.” He ran his fingers through his hair.

Sam looked over his shoulder to where Joan Bryant had just appeared.  
“I apologize for my brother Sam. He’s gotten a little excited coming up to today.” She smiled at both her brother and Sam. Sam found that all the anxiety in her body had completely drained away. Having friends really changed a lot. 

Mark offered his arm to Sam in a jokingly chivalrous fashion.   
“Shall we depart, my fair lady?” He asked. She laughed at him and pushed away his arm.  
“You are just as strange as I remember,” she told him. Mark put his hand on his heart in a show of offense.  
“Excuse me Sam I am not strange, I am eccentric.” Joan snorted.  
“Whatever you are we need to be getting on the train. It’s nearly eleven.” Mark looked down at the watch on his arm.   
“Oh yeah you’re right.” He adjusted his grip on the suitcase he was carrying. “Come on Sam.” Sam smiled at him and followed the siblings to the train. It was going to be a good year.


	2. A Different Wavelength From The World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caleb and Adam have a chat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I am back with another chapter, which is, in my opinion, better than the first one.  
> The first chapter was basically just introducing most characters so from now on the chapters will (hopefully) be less choppy and disjointed.  
> Enjoy!

Caleb didn’t know what to do. He was sitting in a train compartment in his jeans and a hoodie facing a boy in dark school robes who looked like he was definitely mean to be here. Caleb knew that he did not look like that. He looked like a little bit of a mess. He was glad that there was someone here with him but after sharing a smile with each other there had been nothing but silence. And it was starting to be awkward.

Caleb looked out the window. Already there were fields streaming by like a river of fresh green grass. Like the type of place you always read about in storybooks but never think is real. He wondered if he would be feeling like this throughout his entire time at Hogwarts, always dumbfounded by the beauty and impossibility of the world which he now lived in.   
Caleb shot a look at Adam. He looked kind of uncomfortable now and was fiddling with his wand. Caleb realized that he was being faced with two choices. Sit here and stare out the window awkwardly for his whole ride or try and start a conversation with Adam. 

“So how long have you known about magic?” Caleb asked. The moment he opened his mouth he started freaking out. Adam looked at him with confusion.  
“Well my parents tried to keep it a secret from me but I found out two years ago. I guess my parents sort of underestimated my inquisitivity.” Caleb snorted.  
“There is no way that inquisitivity is a word,” Caleb pointed out. Adam shrugged.  
“Okay fair point but did anyone critique Shakespeare when he made up new word?” Adam asked jokingly. Caleb laughed.  
“Wow you are such a dork. Are you seriously comparing yourself to Shakespeare?”   
“Why not? He’s a cool dude.”  
“Cool dude is going a bit far don’t you think?” Adam laughed in mock offense.  
“Excuse me but Shakespeare is an artist.”  
“He’s an old white dude who wrote things.”  
“Revolutionary things!”  
“Same difference.”

Caleb found that he absolutely loved joking around with Adam. It just felt so natural already. Like they’d been friends from birth. Adam leaned back.  
“Listen I love Shakespeare so much that I named my owl after him.” Caleb rose his eyebrows sceptically.  
“Are you telling me that your owl is called Shakespeare?” Adam shrugged, a happy grin evident on his face.  
“I call him ‘jerk bird’ and ‘stupid’ a lot but officially yes that is his name.” Caleb rolled his eyes.  
“Wow you are such a dork.” Adam leaned forwards.

“What’s your owl named then?” Caleb looked at his owl. His owl screeched at him.  
“He’s called Merlin.” Adam tried and failed to repress a laugh. Caleb looked at Adam self-consciously.  
“What’s wrong with that?” Adam grinned at him.  
“It’s not very original is it?” Caleb frowned.  
“Well it’s better than Shakespeare. And besides what else am I going to call him? Harry?” Caleb’s owl hooted and attacked the side of the cage. Adam smirked.  
“I think he likes that idea.” Caleb rolled his eyes at Adam.   
“Whatever.”

Adam twirled his wand in his hand.  
“So do you have any idea what house you’re gonna be in?” Caleb frowned.   
“House?” He asked with confusion. What did Adam mean by that? Adam’s face lit up in surprise.  
“Wait, don’t you know about the Hogwarts houses?” Caleb shook his head. Adam sat up in his seat.  
“Okay well there are four houses. Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. Gryffindor is known as the brave house, Slytherin as the ambitious one, Ravenclaw as the smart one, and Hufflepuff as the kind one. My family has been wizards for a long time and they have mostly been in Slytherin. My mother is the most recent exception, she’s in Ravenclaw. My mum doesn’t really care what house I’m in but I know my dad wants me to be a Slytherin like my cousin,” Adam explained. He slumped down in his chair after explaining, as though it had taken a lot of energy out of him. Caleb nodded.

“You have a wizard cousin?” he asked. He felt like there were other questions that he could be asking but that was the one that he was most curious about right now. Adam nodded.  
“Yeah, her name is Annabelle. She’s a third year in Slytherin and she’s pretty cool.” Adam smiled. It was clear that he looked up to his cousin. 

“Has she like, told you anything about Hogwarts?” Caleb asked. He hadn’t even known there were houses that you got sorted into so he really wanted to know if there was anything else major that he was missing. To Caleb’s relief Adam nodded.

“She says that the teachers are all pretty cool. There’s a fair bit of work to be done but that it never bothered her. Apparently, the food is really good. They have this massive banquet hall where they get food made by the house elves. She says that you can get extra food if you get to know the elves.” Caleb grinned. Food. That had been one worry in the back of his head. He wanted there to be good food, and lots of it. Caleb was always hungry. Even now he was wishing that he had something more to eat than the sandwich his parents had packed for lunch. 

Adam looked out the window. He didn’t look as uncomfortable as before. Maybe his conversation with Caleb had helped him. Caleb was definitely feeling better after talking to Adam. But now on his mind was the issue of the houses. Brave house, Ambitious house, smart house, kind house. Caleb had absolutely no idea which house he would be best suited for. He wasn’t very ambitious or super smart. He supposed he was a little bit brave and it was possible that he was kind but he didn’t really know what traits he possessed. Wasn’t it a little unfair to sort them into houses the moment they got there? Why couldn’t it wait until they were in second year and had a little bit more of an understanding about what was going on? 

Caleb looked at Adam. He didn’t seem to be worried about the sorting process. Why would he be? It was clear that he came from a long line of wizards who knew what they were doing and were all sorted into two houses. He had nothing to be worried about. Adam was probably the type of student to ace all his classes without breaking a sweat. Caleb wasn’t stupid but maths was hard enough. How was he going to deal with transfiguring things or making potions? Why did he suddenly feel so much more anxious? He had been fine before. Where had that natural feeling gone? That wonder of being on a magic train? Now it was replaced by worry and the unsettling fear of not being good enough. 

“Hey, are you alright?” Caleb looked up to see that Adam was watching his with a concerned expression.  
“Um yeah, yeah totally. Why wouldn’t I be fine? I’m doing great!” Caleb tried to force some enthusiasm and cheerfulness into his words but he wasn’t very at acting or lying. Adam saw right through him.  
“No really, what’s wrong? You kind of went all,” Adam gestured to Caleb’s face “pale. Do you get train sick or something?” Caleb shook his head.  
“Nah nothing like that. It’s just…ugh. I don’t know how I’m gonna deal with all this magic stuff. Like, I’m super excited but I’m also really nervous.” Adam offered him a comforting smile. 

“It’s okay. I’m super nervous too. I feel like my whole family expects me to do really well here but I’m just a kid. You know?” Caleb nodded, surprised.  
“I didn’t expect you to be nervous. I mean, you seem to have it altogether and you’ve known about this for a while, and I didn’t even know there were houses.” Caleb told him. Adam laughed with surprise.  
“You thought I had everything together? I thought you had everything together. You looked so confident and chill. Like I’m this weirdo sitting here in my robes and you’re just chilling in your hoodie and jeans.” It was Caleb’s turn to laugh.  
“I thought you looked prepared by wearing the robes.” Adam grinned.  
“I guess we misjudged each other a bit, didn’t we?” Caleb nodded. He felt so much better now that he knew that his freaking out was totally normal.   
“Well I guess now we know.” Adam smiled at him. Caleb wondered how he managed to smile so calmingly.

“It can be the two of us against the world.”  
“I’d like that,” Caleb said, surprising himself with how happy he felt at the prospect of facing the challenges of the oncoming year with Adam by his side.   
Adam turned his head towards the door.  
“Man I can’t wait for the food trolley to get here. I’m starving.”   
“There’s a what now?”


	3. Like Nothing Else In Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe and Frank are on the train and they are joined by someone new.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have returned with another chapter.   
> This one will also be set on the train and will introduce another one of our main characters.  
> Enjoy!

Chloe was sitting in a compartment with Frank completely relaxed. The train was steadily puffing along already and she had put her cat Roger on her lap, where he was happily purring. Frank had smiled when he had seen the cat.  
“I’ve always liked cats. They’re a little bit flighty but if you can get close to them, they will always be there for you.” Chloe tilted her head.   
“Look at you being all philosophical over cats. And I thought it was dogs who were always there for you.” Frank laughed.  
“Well that may be so. I find that all pets are really lovely. Great companions. I always wanted one for myself but my dad, well, he wouldn’t let me get one. Said I wasn’t responsible enough.” Frank looked down at his feet and fiddled with his hands. His dad must be a bit of a sore spot for him.

Chloe took it upon herself to change the subject.  
“So you’re in Gryffindor, right? That means you’re brave.” Frank nodded.  
“That is what the hat thought. I don’t know how true that is but, it is nice to know that an all-powerful object believes you to be capable of great bravery.” Chloe laughed.  
“Do you always turn things into philosophical sayings?” Frank smiled.  
“I don’t know. I don’t really talk to people much but, I guess you’re right. I do seem to be very philosophical.”  
“I think that’s a good thing. You’re always able to find the bright things in life.” Frank nodded.  
“I guess so.”

Chloe looked out the window. They were currently passing an orchard. It was so beautiful, full of fresh fruit and trees that were rich with bright greens and dark oaky trunks. It was so beautiful. Chloe had always loved seeing beautiful things. Her mother said that she had the eye of an artist. She guessed that was true. She did love doing art at school. Her favourite was sculpting. She really seemed to have a knack for it. 

She wondered if there was an art class at Hogwarts. She turned to Frank. He would know.  
“Is there any type of art class at Hogwarts?” She asked. Frank shook his head sadly.  
“I’m afraid not. I love painting, especially with acrylics, but Hogwarts’ curriculum doesn’t have any sort of art class.” Chloe frowned.  
“Well that’s sad. If they don’t have an art class what sort of classes do they have?” Frank knit his eyebrows together.  
“There’s Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, Defence Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic, Astronomy, and Herbology.” Chloe frowned again.   
“What about Maths? What about English? What about Science?” Frank shook his head again as if he were ashamed of his school's lacking curriculum.

“I’m afraid that Hogwarts doesn’t have those as compulsory classes. There are however classes that you can take on Maths and English that take place on weekends. They were added in after complaints from parents about the lack of proper teaching at Hogwarts.” Chloe nodded.  
“I would sure hope so. How else do kids learn the basics?” Frank laughed.  
“I don’t think that was what the founders of the school had in mind. I think they were focusing on the magic aspects.”

There was a sudden knocking on the door. Frank and Chloe looked up to see a first-year girl wearing robes standing at their door with a nervous expression on her face. She opened the door.   
“Um, hi. I’m Rose. I was with my brother Aaron but he kicked me out. I guess he didn’t want his little sister to be sitting with him and all his cool friends. Anyways, I was wondering if I could sit with you guys?” As she spoke Rose fiddled with her hands. Chloe gave her a bright smile.  
“Of course you can sit with us. I’m Chloe and this is Frank. Please, come in.” Rose stepped through the door and sat down, closing the door behind her.

“Thanks,” she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.  
“It’s no problem,” Chloe replied, still smiling brightly.   
“Chloe’s right. It really is no problem,” Frank added, nodding his head.   
Rose looked at the two of them.   
“So, do you guys know each other or-”  
“Nope. We just met today. I actually wasn’t paying attention to where I was going and I ran into him.” Chloe couldn’t stop herself from laughing as she said it. It was a kind of funny way to become friends with someone after all. But that was okay.

Rose looked surprised.  
“Oh really? I thought you two looked pretty close and I just thought you must have known each other from somewhere.” Frank shook his head.  
“It’s funny how two people can meet each other and just click. No matter what. Like you were destined to know them.” Rose lifted an eyebrow.   
“Um, what?” She sounded positively perplexed. Chloe laughed.  
“Don’t worry, he does this thing where he turns even the simplest things into queries about the universe. He’s in Gryffindor but I think he should be in Ravenclaw because he is just so philosophical.” Rose blinked with surprise. 

“Wait, you’re in Gryffindor?” She asked. Frank nodded.  
“Indeed I am.” Rose pursed her lips.  
“Do you know a guy called Aaron Atkinson?” Frank thought for a moment.  
“I think I know a third year that goes by that name, yes. Is he the tall skinny one?” Rose nodded.  
“Yep, that’s Aaron. He’s my brother.” Frank tilted his head.  
“Well if you don’t mind me saying, the resemblance isn’t exactly striking.” Rose nodded.  
“Yeah a lot of people say that. I usually take it as a compliment.” Chloe laughed and Frank smiled at that comment.

Rose shifted in her seat. She didn't seem to know exactly what she was doing.   
“So, Chloe, do you have any idea what house you are going to be in?” Chloe nodded.  
“Yep. My mum has always said that I’m gonna be a Hufflepuff. Says I am just that kind, caring, patient and loyal. Of course, she could just be saying that to make me feel good but I don’t think so.” Rose nodded and smiled.  
“My whole family is wizards. My dad was in Gryffindor but my mum was in Slytherin. I think I’m expected to be in one of those houses but I don’t think I’m really ambitious or brave though. And I don’t think I’m particularly smart or kind either. So, I don’t really know.” Chloe beamed at the unsure Rose.

“Don’t worry, you’ll find your place. The cosmos always finds a way,” Chloe told Rose. Rose laughed, a little nervous.  
“Are you two always this, well, intense?” Chloe laughed.  
“I sure hope not. Let’s change the subject. What are you most looking forwards to about Hogwarts?” Chloe asked with a little head tilt. Rose bit her cheek and frowned.  
“Hmm. That’s a tough one. I guess learning how to do magic would be the thing I am looking forwards to the most,” Rose finally answered. Chloe smiled.

“That will be pretty cool I bet. The thing I’m looking forwards to the most however is meeting new people and making friends. I mean there is going to be a whole castle full of new people to befriend. Isn’t that just so exciting?” Chloe asked Rose. Rose shrugged.  
“I guess. I don’t know. I’m not exactly a people person if that makes sense,” She said, sounding unsure. Chloe nodded and smiled understandingly.   
“I get that. Sometimes people can be really loud and I just want to pull into myself and hide away. But then I get lonely. I can’t go too long without human interaction.” Rose suppressed a smile. 

“What?” asked Chloe. Rose shook her head and laughed.  
“Nothing, just a silly thought.” Frank seemed to think that he wanted to be back to in the conversation at this point and so he said  
“You are right about what you said earlier Rose. Learning magic is very cool.” Rose nodded.  
“I know. Aaron wouldn’t shut up about it when he got back from Hogwarts that first holiday. He kept threatening to turn me into a toad but I think he was joking.” Frank smiled.  
“Don’t worry, he was. You don’t learn big Transfiguration for a while I think. First year you learn very basic stuff like turning a matchstick into a needle. It is still very cool.”

Rose and Chloe nodded.  
“Well it sounds like we are going to be in for a very interesting year,” Chloe said with a comical lift of her eyebrows. Rose supressed a laugh.  
“Yeah I guess you could say that.” Frank smiled at the two first year girls and then pulled his wand from his pocket.  
“Now who want to see me do some actual magic?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I hope that you enjoyed that. Please leave a Kudos and/or a comment if you enjoyed.  
> Also Episode 52 was absolutely adorable and I am not over Caleb and Adam.


	4. Makes Me Want to Be Foolish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark, Sam, and Joan talk about what might come in the year.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have returned after a bit of hibernation to bring you the final scene set on the train.  
> Enjoy!

Sam felt relaxed and happy for about the first time in months. She was sitting next to Mark who was twirling his wand around and making bad jokes while Joan and Sam rolled their eyes at him. Mark had always been the most playful of them, the one who always got into trouble too. The amount of times Mark had been caught out of curfew or having a wand fight in a corridor with someone twice his size was getting out of hand. Joan found it especially annoying as she had to be the older sibling giving him a responsibility talk every time it happened. 

Mark turned to face Sam with an excited grin.   
“So, Sam, what are you looking forwards to doing again at Hogwarts? Because I don’t know about you but I have been looking forwards to-”  
“The food, trying out for the Quidditch team, and being able to do magic,” Sam and Joan said in perfect unison. Mark stopped mid-sentence and then gave them a sheepish look.  
“Have I really been going on about all that so much?” he asked. Sam and Joan nodded.

“Every day.”  
“In every letter.”  
“I’m going to be in the Quidditch team this year Joanie.”  
“I’m going to be the best Chaser ever Sam.”  
“The food at home isn’t as good at home as it is at Hogwarts.”  
“Sam, this is going to be my last letter to you for a while because I’m grounded for saying that Mum’s cooking isn’t good.”  
“Joanie how much trouble do you think I would get in if I hexed the boy down the road.”  
“Sam have I told you-”

“OKAY I GET IT!” Mark shouted. He had gone slightly red. When he yelled Sam nearly jumped out of her seat. Mark noticed immediately and put a hand on Sam’s shoulder.  
“Sorry for yelling Sam.” She smiled at him.  
“It’s okay Mark, we were being a little rude.” Joan laughed.  
“He deserves it. Honestly how I put up with a brother as infuriating as Mark escapes my vast knowledge. ” Mark pointed at Joan accusingly.  
“Like you’re any better. You keep on going on about how you finally get to do electives this year and how Care of Magical Creatures is going to be sooooo fascinating. Honestly how did I get such a nerd for an older sister?”   
"Says the boy who knows every Quidditch stat ever," Joan retorted.

Sam tried to hide her laughing but failed miserably. The Bryant siblings looked at her with such a similar expression that Sam had to laugh again.  
“What?” Asked Mark with confusion mixed with mirth. Sam smiled at the siblings.  
“Nothing, you just look so similar. Seriously, you should see your faces right now. Also it’s really funny watching you two pester each other.” Mark nodded.  
“Fair point. I think we are notorious for turning pestering each other with love into a spectator sport.” The three kids laughed.

Mark stretched his arms above his head.  
“Okay all jokes aside I really am looking forwards to be part of the Quidditch team.” He said. Joan rose an eyebrow.  
“So you’re still sure that you will make it?” Mark snorted.  
“Of course I’m sure. Two Chasers are leaving this year. That’s two chances for me to fill the spot. And I am actually good at flying. Back me up Sam.” He turned to her expectantly.

Sam remembered when she had first seen Mark fly. After dinner one night, towards the end of the year, Mark had pulled her aside and insisted that she leave her dorm room when she heard three knocks. She had been worried about being caught but she was also curious about what Mark had planned. She had opened the door when he had knocked and followed him down to the Quidditch pitch where he had proceeded to show off his flying skills for about ten minutes straight.   
He had told her afterwards that he had been practicing flying on a school broom after curfew for a while because he wanted to be good enough to play Quidditch. She remembered how confident and proud of himself he looked when he had told her. She really hoped that he made it into the team. 

Sam returned from the memory back into the conversation.  
“He is actually really good Joan. He definitely has a chance.” Sam hesitated and frowned.  
“Wait, why haven’t you seen him fly at all?” Mark frowned.  
“I would have shown her but I’m not allowed to fly at home. Even if I did have a broom.” He sighed.

Sam couldn’t really understand what he was feeling. Her parents loved hearing about the magic world and had been disappointed when Sam had told them that she couldn’t legally do any magic outside of Hogwarts or in front of Muggles. Mark and Joan’s parents on the other hand, didn’t want to hear anything about magic. They feared the fact that there was a world full of people who could easily overpower the average human. She knew it sometimes made it difficult for the Bryant siblings to live in a house where they couldn’t talk about magic much. 

Mark fidgeted with the edge of his robe.  
“I wish I did have a bit of extra practice over the summer. The Quidditch season starts pretty quickly and I don’t want to be rusty.” He sighed again. Joan and Sam made eye contact. They needed to change the subject. If Mark was in a bad mood, it would mean a tough train ride for them.  
“I’m sure it’s going to be okay. But you know what I’m kind of looking forwards to?” Mark looked at her with a slight smile, his eyes crinkled in confused.   
“I wish I could quote back to you everything you’ve said but I can’t. What is it?” Sam bit her lip.

“Well it’s just a little thing but I’m actually looking forwards to there being another lot of kids there. Like we’re not going to be at the bottom of the food chain anymore. And I kind of want to help them out, you know show them the ropes I guess.” Mark smiled at her.  
“That’s one of the things I like about you Sam. Always wanting to help others out. Me on the other hand-” Mark shifted in his seat and a mischievous glint appeared in his eyes. “-I’m going to annoy these kids as much as humanly possible.” Sam sighed.  
“Well I guess I can’t have everything," She said with a shrug. Joan laughed.

“Mark, I don’t think annoying a lot of first years is going to help you win the House Cup. If I remember correctly you cost your house 340 points last year. On the other hand, I won 230 for mine and who ended up winning the House Cup?” Mark grunted.  
“Okay that’s fair but Slytherin are a lot of cheaters.” Joan gasped in mock indignation and put her hand on her heart in offense.  
“Lies and slander! Slytherin would never cheat.”

“Oh really? What about Kepler?”  
“He did not cheat. He just manipulated the points system so he could get more of them. It’s what any Prefect would do.” Mark snorted.  
“Yeah right. Sam back me up.” Sam shook her head immediately.   
“Oh no you don’t. I am staying so far away from this situation. It’s the Ravenclaw thing to do. And might I add Ravenclaw also beat Hufflepuff.” Mark looked at Sam with betrayal.  
“How dare you attack me in this way Sam? I thought we were friends.” Sam rolled her eyes.  
“Okay drama queen.” Mark shook his head sadly and turned to Joan.  
The two siblings continued to bicker as Sam watched. This was what she had missed. This feeling. It was everything to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so next time I have time to update we will have the first view of Hogwarts through the first years eyes and the Sorting.  
> Remember that comments and kudos are the lifeblood of writers so if you liked it and/or wish to offer some thoughts please do leave one of those options.  
> Thank you for reading!


	5. Into A World So Unpredictable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first look at Hogwarts and the Sorting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! Long time no see. I am not dead, just a really stressed student with not a lot of time to write. But don't worry, I do plan to finish this fic. In the meantime I hope you like this chapter.  
> Enjoy!

Chloe and Rose had been pinned to the side of the carriage for fifteen minutes before they had arrived at their destination. The train ride hadn’t been very eventful. They had eaten food, seen Frank do a basic levitation charm, and gotten to know each other through mild chatter. Once it had started getting darker they had all left to go get changed into their robes. When Frank had informed the two girls that they were getting closer to Hogwarts they had immediately started looking out the window, excitedly trying to see if they could spot the castle from their carriage.   
Unfortunately, the only thing the two girls could see was dark forest. 

They pulled into the station and they sprung away from the glass and opened the door. Frank laughed at them.  
“Enjoy your boat ride. And I hope you get sorted well. I’ll be at the Gryffindor table watching you two.” They both smiled at Frank.  
“Thanks Frank.” Chloe said. Rose laughed.  
“Hey that rhymes!” They left the carriage with giggle. Frank watched them go with a wistful expression. He remembered what it was like seeing Hogwarts for the first time. It was hypnotizing. 

When Chloe stepped outside she immediately shivered with how cold it was. The train had been relatively well heated and stepping out into the northern night air was a bit of a shock. She heard Rose exclaim in surprise.  
“Wow, I was not expecting that.” Before Chloe could reply they heard a voice calling out  
“Alright, First Years over here! Please don’t push. We wouldn’t want anyone falling into the lake!” Chloe and Rose moved towards the voice. With them moved a cloud of first years, all full of excitement at the prospect of seeing Hogwarts for the first time. 

The owner of the voice was a tall man whose figures couldn’t quite be made out in the dark, although it seemed that he wasn’t totally human. She gathered this from the third eye on his face.  
“Hello first years. I am Cecil Palmer, and I will be guiding you to your first view of Hogwarts!” At this the whole crowd burst into a babble of excitement. Chloe and Rose looked at each other, hardly able to stop themselves from jumping for joy. Hogwarts. This was real. They were going to be attending Hogwarts. They were going to be witches.

Cecil rose his hands.  
“Okay first years. Calm down, we aren’t at Hogwarts yet!” The crowd simmered down. Cecil turned around and gestured for them to follow him. They walked down a gravelly path guarded of both sides by a forest with tall pine trees. Everyone was still talking calmly and some kids were trying to walk on their tiptoes, as if it would help them see the castle sooner. Chloe and Rose walked side by side in silence. 

Then they walked around a bend and silence fell over the group. Everyone’s gaze was pointed upwards in awe. There it was. Hogwarts. The castle was massive and perched on the side of the hill. Every window was lit with a golden light that filled everyone with a feeling of home. Chloe didn’t even realize that her mouth had fallen open in shock. Her mother had always talked of Hogwarts with a distant glint in her eye but now Chloe thought that she understood why. It was magnificent. 

Cecil then spoke in a soft voice, like he understood perfectly what everyone was feeling.   
“Wonderful isn’t it. Now come on, it’s time to get into the boats. He led them over to the edge of the lake where there were a number of small boats, about big enough to hold four people. They looked well used, but not unsafe, which relieved Chloe. She had been told by her mother and Frank that there was a giant squad living in the lake and she did not want to meet it on her first day. 

“Okay first years. Four people to a boat and remember not to push!” Everyone ignored what Cecil had said and they surged forwards to the boats. Chloe grabbed Rose’s arm so as to not lose her in the crowd and moved with them. She found a partially empty boat with two boys in it who were staring out across the dark glassy lake as if they were hoping it would turn into a window to their futures. As the two girls sat down the boys looked at them. Thankfully they didn’t look too hostile. Chloe decided to do introductions. 

“Hi. I’m Chloe Turner and my friend here is Rose Atkinson. What are your names?” One of the boys looked at his friend as if waiting for confirmation that it was okay to reply. His friend shrugged. That must have been a ‘yes’ because the boy spoke.  
“I’m Caleb Michaels and this is Adam Hayes. It’s nice to meet you guys.” Chloe leaned forwards.  
“Do you guys know what-”  
“-Alright kids, we’re staring now. Stay in your boats, we don’t want anyone falling in. There are many things in the lake that you don’t want to meet today” The four of them were slightly shocked when, as Cecil stated speaking, the boat started moving without any help. Caleb’s eyes widened and he mouthed at all of them, ‘magic’. 

The boats moved slowly, the image of the smooth glass like lake disappearing as ripples swept outwards. Most people were still looking at the castle with looks that told Chloe they were imagining what it was going to be like inside the castle. Two of these people were Caleb and Adam. Caleb looked especially entranced. Chloe wondered if he was from a magic family or not. If he was Muggleborn then his surprise and hypnotism made a lot of sense. It would be a lot to take in. 

Finally, the boat came to shore in what appeared to be a small cave with an underground harbour. Everyone climbed out of their boats. All the excited murmuring had disappeared, as if the reality of what was about to happen was finally sinking in. They followed Cecil up a passageway and then some stairs before they were facing a giant door. Cecil turned to survey the crowd.  
“Are we all ready?” There was a silence. A few kids, including Chloe and Rose, nodded. Cecil beamed at them broadly. He turned and knocked on the door. They both swung open.  
“Welcome to Hogwarts.”

They were led into a giant entrance hall where Cecil told them about the different houses and how they were soon to be sorted. He left and they waited there for several moments. A few kids had started whispering to their friends about which house they thought they would be sorted into. Chloe didn’t need to ask Rose so instead she took the time to admire the hall. She was filled with so much energy. She didn’t know if she was more excited or nervous. Then Cecil returned, got them into a straight line, and led them into the banquet hall.

It was a bit nerve wracking to be paraded down a hall with everyone in the school staring at them. Chloe looked out among the crowd for any friendly faces. She locked eyes with a boy who had a very cold expression on his face so she stopped looking. Rose did an awkward nod to her brother as they passed near where he was. Chloe thought the two siblings looked quite similar. She saw Adam point out a third year Slytherin to Caleb. She had a look on her face that made Chloe uneasy for some reason.

They stopped at the front, where The Sorting Hat was brought out. It sang a song but Chloe was too nervous to be paying any attention to the words. It sounded nice though. Then the began calling names. The very first one was,  
“Atkinson, Rose.” Rose swallowed. Chloe grabbed her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Rose nodded and walked up. She was barely there for a second before it shouted   
“Hufflepuff!” Rose let out a sigh of relief and bounced over to the Hufflepuff table. The next name to be called that meant anything to Chloe was  
“Hayes, Adam.” Adam was very swiftly sorted into Ravenclaw, which he looked happy about. Then a bit after that there was  
“Michaels, Caleb.” He was sorted into Hufflepuff and he sat next to Rose. 

Then soon enough came  
“Turner, Chloe.” She gulped and walked up. The hat was placed on her head. She heard it’s voice in her ear.  
“Ah Chloe. I know exactly where you belong. Hufflepuff!” Chloe beamed and sprung off the chair. She sat on the other side of Rose who looked about as ecstatic as Chloe felt. When the Sorting was wrapped up and the feast began, Chloe just knew that this year was the beginning of something amazing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the next chapter is probably going to be a bit longer than usual because I want to cut through as much of the character introductions and the beginning stuff as quick as I can so we can get into the bigger plot. I have no idea when I am next going to update but it will happen. So please, leave a comment or a kudos if you enjoyed!


	6. A Puzzle, A Painting, A Shakespeare Play

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caleb makes some new friends and talks to Adam again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After another week I have returned. As promised this chapter is a little bit longer and will cover Caleb's first night and most of his first morning at Hogwarts.  
> Enjoy!

Caleb felt like the Great Feast just flew by. He found himself talking to Chloe and Rose who were really talkative, well, Chloe was, and they were also really nice. The food was probably the best he had ever tasted, and there was so much of it. If a second year who introduced himself as Mark Bryant hadn’t stopped him by saying that he would feel terrible if he kept eating, he might have eaten everything in sight. 

When they were dismissed a confused looking fifth year stood up.  
“Um hi guys. I’m Doug Eiffel, please call me Eiffel. I was elected as House Prefect this year, but that was probably because there are literally two other Hufflepuff’s in my year, and they can’t be trusted with anything so, I got the job. So, I’m gonna take you guys to the dorm, um if any other students can please help out with the first years that would be great.” Then Eiffel led them out of the hall.  
The second year called Mark joined them.

“Sorry about Eiffel. He may be a fifth year and he’s really nice, but he doesn’t know what he’s doing. I’ll help you guys out. Don’t worry, you are going to have a great year at Hogwarts. Hufflepuff is one of the best houses, but don’t tell that to my sister or Sam, my best friend. Caleb looked at Mark. He seemed to know exactly what he was doing.  
“So, what are classes like?” he asked. “My friend Adam said that his sister said that they are kind of hard but it’s worth it.” Mark shrugged.  
“It all depends on what you’re good at. For instance, my friend Sam is awesome at Charms but she cannot do Potions for the life of her. Once she actually blew up her cauldron.” Chloe gasped.  
“Was she okay?” Mark laughed.

“Yeah she was fine. The healers at Hogwarts are great. Just don’t end up there too much or they will start losing patience. I’m pretty sure Eiffel has a warning from them.” Chloe grinned.  
“What are you best at?” She asked. Mark thought for a moment.  
“I don’t want to sound like some bragging jerk, but, that’s a tough one. My favourite is probably Transfiguration but I am really good at Defence Against The Dark Arts.” Caleb frowned. Defence Against The Dark Arts? Why the heck would you need that? Was there some sort of problem with the Dark arts? Or was that just a ‘in case of emergencies’ class? 

The group of Hufflepuffs walked past a door that Mark told them was the kitchens.  
“We’re really close to it so if any of you feel like a midnight snack, just sneak out and grab one. The House Elves love us.” Caleb frowned.  
“House Elves?” Mark looked like he understood Caleb’s confusion.  
“You’re a Muggleborn aren’t you? Don’t worry, I was just as confused as you when I arrived here. It’s a lot to take in. The House Elves work for the school, they do cooking cleaning, and all other little tasks. They love it, although some people do think they should be treated a little more fairly.” Caleb nodded, he was pretty sure Adam had mentioned the elves but Caleb had kind of skipped ove the elf party in favor of the food part. He still had questions though.  
“So, like Santa’s elves?” Mark seemed surprised by this comparison.  
“Yeah actually that’s exactly what they are like!” 

The Hufflepuff’s were led through a door that appeared to have been a painting, into a cosy room with couches, an open fireplace, skylights, yellow decorations everywhere, and a feeling that made Caleb feel really happy. Doug walked into the centre of the room and spread his hands.  
“Okay so this is our fabulous dorm room. First years, you are over there. Because of the number of you, you’ll have to share rooms. Four people in a room. So, go nuts I guess. Just don’t hurt anyone and if you get into a fight come to me and I’ll try and use some signature Doug Eiffel wisdom.” Eiffel made a shooing gesture and all the first years swept over to where the rooms were. 

A few kids groaned when they saw that the rooms had to be gendered. Caleb was fine with it however and he just walked into one of the boys’ rooms and pulled himself on to one of the top bunks before anyone could stop him. He grinned, he’d always wanted a bunk bed. Three other boys moved into their places. Caleb couldn’t help but feel sad about the fact that none of them were Adam. He was in Ravenclaw. Caleb wondered if he had made friends already, and if he’d already forgot about Caleb. He hoped not. Adam had been really cool and it would suck to not be his friend. 

The three other boys started talking about a thing called Quidditch. One of them, a really tall skinny boy called Elliot asked Caleb if he knew what it was. When Caleb said he didn’t, all three boys omitted him from the conversation. Caleb lay on his bed for a bit before he decided to go to sleep. The boys had turned off the lights but they still talked quietly. Caleb thankfully, was able to fall asleep despite the chatter. 

The next morning Caleb was the first up and the first dressed in his dorm. He was super hungry and if breakfast was anything like dinner, it was going to be amazing. He went into the common room and was about to leave before he thought about Chloe and Rose. The two girls had been really nice and Caleb wouldn’t mind having some friends in his house. So, he decided to wait for them. As he waited he thought about Adam. Caleb wanted to see him again so he told himself that before he found a seat at the Great Hall, he would go and talk to Adam, maybe ask him about what his night had been like.

A voice called out from behind him.  
“Caleb? You alright there buddy?” Caleb turned to see Mark standing behind him. He nodded.  
“Yeah I though I’d just wait for Chloe and Rose.” Mark nodded and then his face lit up like he’d had a great idea.  
“I’m gonna wait with you and then I’m going to introduce you to my sister and my best friend.” Caleb was taken aback.

“Uh what?”  
“Well its just that you seem like the type of person who we’d like to be friends with. And that includes Rose and Chloe. I know we haven’t talked to each other much and if you guys don’t want to meet us that’s totally cool but I just thought that it might be nice to have some more friends.” Caleb didn’t really know what to say. This was one of the nicest things anyone had ever done for him. And he hadn’t really even had someone telling him that he seemed like the type of person they’d like to know.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, that’d, that’d be really cool.” Mark looked almost relieved that Caleb had said yes.  
“Awesome. Okay then I will wait for the girls with you and then we will go and meet my friends.” Mark sat down next to Caleb with a happy grin.  
“So how are you feeling about Hogwarts? I know you’ll be getting your timetable today and being Muggleborn at a magic school without much technology can be a bit overwhelming.” Caleb nodded and looked at his shoes.

Mark was right. It was really overwhelming. It still felt like some crazy dream. They were wearing robes, using owls as communication, writing with quills and ink, and they were surrounded by empty countryside. He had eaten food made magically by elves and he had a wand in his pocket with which he would be able to do spells. He had no idea what he was doing. 

Caleb looked up at Mark.  
“How did you deal with all of it?” Mark smiled at him.  
“I found good friends, I learnt as much as I could and I told myself that no matter how weird something seemed it was possible. I just accepted the weirdness and stepped headfirst into it. Before I knew my life was nothing but the strange and unusual. But don’t worry Caleb. We will help you out.”

As Mark finished comforting Caleb, Chloe and Rose entered the dorm room excitedly talking. When they saw the two boys they walked over.  
“Hey Caleb, Hey Mark. What are you guys doing here?” Caleb found that he didn’t have the words so Mark stepped in.  
“Caleb and I were waiting for you two. And then I was going to introduce you to my friends. Well, my best friend and my sister. But don’t worry, they’re cool.” Rose looked a little unsure but Chloe seemed to be practically beaming with happiness at the thought of gaining new friends.

“Awesome! I love meeting new people. Oh! Can I bring my friend Frank? He’s a second year Gryffindor but he’s really nice I promise.” Mark nodded.  
“Yeah sure. The more the merrier.” Rose smiled and nodded. She looked more confident now.  
“Okay let’s do this.”  
When they got to the Great Hall Caleb left to go find Adam, and Chloe and Rose left to go find Frank. Mark told them to go to the Hufflepuff table and he said to Caleb that if he wanted to bring Adam back he was more than welcome. 

Caleb remembered that Adam had been sorted into Ravenclaw so he went over to that table. He saw Adam immediately. He looked kind of hunched into himself, like he was trying his hardest not to be seen. Caleb bounded over to him.  
“Adam! Hey!” When Adam looked up to see Caleb his face broke into a giant smile.  
“Caleb! What are you doing here?” Caleb shrugged and couldn’t help the smile on his face.  
“Well, I wanted to see my friend. I wanted to know how you were doing. And if you want to you can come and sit with me. This guy called Mark is going to invite me to his friends. And those two girls we sat with on the boat are going to be there.” Adam was still smiling but his brow creased a little.

“Would I be welcome?” Caleb nodded enthusiastically.  
“Yeah definitely. Mark said the more the merrier.” Adam still looked a little conflicted.  
“Can we just stay here alone for a while? We can tell each other about our nights.” Caleb nodded.  
“Awesome.” 

The two boys sat and talked. Adam told Caleb that the Ravenclaw common room was awesome, that it was at the top of this tower and the library there was really cool, despite being small. He hadn’t really made any friends, but he had made a mental note to stay away from a second-year boy who glared at everyone and seemed to have a permanent scowl. When Adam was finished Caleb told him about his new friends, the close proximity to the kitchen and how he still felt a little nervous. Adam immediately reassured him, saying that he also felt anxious.

“I mean, we found out that the staircases change place and that the castle is almost like a living death trap. It’s pretty terrifying if you ask me.”  
When they were ready they went over to the Hufflepuff table. The three people that Caleb knew were there along with a Gryffindor that Caleb assumed to be Frank, a nervous looking Ravenclaw, and a Slytherin who was definitely Mark’s sister. She had the same glint in her eyes and the same smile. Mark greeted them.

“Hey Caleb! And that must be Adam.” Adam did a little wave. Mark kept grinning.  
“C’mon, take a seat. I’ll introduce you and as I do, I suggest you have some food if you haven’t already. The bacon and eggs are to die for.” Caleb realised that he hadn’t actually eaten yet so he sat down and started filling his plate with everything he could see.

Mark pointed to the Ravenclaw.  
“This is Sam. She doesn’t really like new people but once you get to know her she is the biggest nerd you will ever meet.” Sam gave Mark an annoyed look.  
“You don’t have to keep saying that every time we meet people.” Mark gave her a playful grin.  
“But it describes you so perfectly.” 

The Slytherin girl narrowed her eyes and leaned forwards.  
“Adam is it? Do you have a cousin by any chance?” Adam looked taken aback but he answered.  
“Uh, yeah. Her name is Annabelle.” The Slytherin nodded.  
“Ah yes. That explains it. You have the same eyes. I have her in my dorm room. She is a very powerful wizard, if a bit annoying at times.” She gestured to herself.  
“I’m Joan by the way. If you haven’t guessed I am Mark’s older brother. I do hope he hasn’t corrupted you yet.” Mark snorted.  
“Like I would ever corrupt someone.” 

Joan and Mark continued to bicker so Caleb and Adam left the conversation to eat. Sam, Rose, Chloe, and Frank were all in conversation and they looked quite comfortable. Everyone in this group looked so nice and they had all been so welcoming. With people like these around him the year ahead would be a piece of cake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I hope you liked that. If you can't tell, I love the Mark/Caleb Brotp.  
> Next time(which is probably going to be sometime next weekend) we will see Sam's first night back at Hogwarts and we will be introduced to Damien.


	7. What Are You Waiting For

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam's first night and morning at Hogwarts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So once again I would like to apologize for my absence. But I do want to finish this story so here is the next chapter.  
> Check the notes at the bottom.  
> Enjoy!

Sam hated the first night at Hogwarts. She had been trying not to think about it on the train ride over. But now she was sitting at the Ravenclaw table away from her two friends and she couldn’t interact with the other house’s tables. She hated this. She didn’t want to talk people she barely knew. Her only friend in this house was Sarah and she was sitting half the table away and Sam did not have the self confidence to walk over there and interject herself into a conversation. 

She looked across the hall at Mark. He was grinning at everyone on his table and was in a playful conversation. He found social interaction so easy. He was friends with everyone in the school. He was Mark Bryant, the unofficial best friend of everyone in the school. Joan and Sam, being introverts, found his easy social confidence confusing but also endearing. Sam wished he was sitting next to her telling her jokes. But he wasn’t. So instead she shrunk into herself and hoped no one would talk to her. 

She looked at the first years. They were so small and most of them looked excited. She remembered her first year. She had been excited but, sitting alone at the Ravenclaw table, she had been more mind-numbingly nervous. She had told Mark and Joan on the train that she wanted to help them out and show them the ropes, but in all honestly, she had no idea how to do that. She didn’t even know how to start a conversation with any of them. And after all, why would they want to talk to her? She turned back to the food.

Sam had nearly forgotten how much she loved the Ravenclaw common room. It was on a tower that was one of the tallest in the castle, so it had a great view. Magnificent bookshelves lined the walls and couches and desks were placed symmetrically over the sapphire carpet. As soon as Sam walked in she felt a sense of tranquillity.   
They were spilt into the same dorm room, so Sam was able to be on the bottom bunk under Sarah. The two girls talked a bit about their summers, but they had never really been the closest, so Sam unpacked mostly in quiet. She was exhausted and ready to go to bed so that when she woke up the nest morning she could run into the Great Hall and sit with Mark and Joan. 

The next morning when she came down for breakfast the Great Hall was mostly empty, but Sam spotted Joan already seated at the Hufflepuff table. Mark wasn’t there yet which made Sam slightly sad. She had been looking forwards to seeing his face. Sam slid into the chair next to Joan.  
“Hey there,” Sam said, for lack of anything else to say. Joan smiled at her.  
“Hi Sam. How was your night?” Sam groaned.  
“It was not great. I really don’t like sitting at the Ravenclaw table all alone.” Joan nodded in understanding. 

Joan looked over Sam’s shoulder. She smiled and then her brows creased slightly.  
“Huh.” Sam spun around to see what she was looking at. It was Mark, but he wasn’t alone. He was with three other Hufflepuff kids. Two girls and a boy. The girls and the boy said something to Mark before going in separate directions. Mark hurried over to where Sam was sitting.

“Okay so, don’t panic but I may have invited some first years and their friends to come and sit with us.” Sam felt terror spike through her.  
“What?” She asked while Joan said, rather annoyed.  
“Mark?” Mark held his hands up like he was warding off complaints.  
“Okay hear me out. Caleb is super nice. He’s bringing his friend Adam. I’ll talk to them. Rose and Chloe, I don’t know much about, but I invited them because I get the feeling that we’d end up being friends with them anyways. They’re bringing along Frank from Gryffindor. I think you mentioned him being in your Potions class Joanie, so you handle them. Sam, you talk to whoever you feel comfortable with. That’s the plan.” 

Sam and Joan stared at him. Sam did not feel any more relieved after hearing his plan. It was still a lot of new people. Sam hated new people. But Mark was Mark, and Mark was always making friends with everyone he met. So, she guessed she would have to swallow her anxiety and deal with it. She could just stick with talking to Joan. And if Joan knew Frank then that made things a bit better.

Suddenly there were people behind her.  
“Hi Mark! This is Frank.” Sam looked behind her to see two Hufflepuff girls, one short and bursting with energy, and the other with a nervous look on her face. Standing behind them was a tall Gryffindor boy who looked mildly uncomfortable. He gave a little wave.  
“Hi,” He said. Joan turned to Frank.  
“You’re in my Potions class, aren’t you? The one with third and second years in it?” Frank nodded slowly.  
“Yes I am. You’re Joan Bryant.” Sam moved away from Joan so that Frank could sit next to her. He did so and gave Sam a smile.  
“Thanks.”

The two girls sat on the other side of Sam. The energetic one beamed at her.  
“Hi! I’m Chloe and this is Rose. You’re Mark’s friend. It’s nice to meet you. I like meeting new people.” Sam blinked.  
“Um…cool. I’m Sam by the way, in case Mark didn’t say.” Chloe kept beaming at her. Then the other girl, Rose, spoke.  
“Chloe. Slow down. You don’t want to overwhelm Sam.” Rose leaned towards Sam.  
“I’m Rose.” Sam smiled at her. Chloe looked at Rose and then turned back to Sam.

“Sorry just, meeting new people gives my brain a lot of energy, a lot of it being nervous energy. I’m not usually this bad.”   
Sam did a quick evaluation of the girls. Chloe, bright, enthusiastic, energetic. Rose, quiet, careful, friendly. They seemed nice enough. She decided that she was going to have to be the voice of reason here. 

“It’s perfectly alright Chloe,” Sam found herself saying, “I get nervous too. Social situations can give you a lot of energy.” Chloe smiled gratefully. Sam turned to the food.  
“Here, you two help yourself to some of Hogwarts best bacon and eggs. Or if you don’t like that there are hundreds of other things to eat. Whatever you have, it’ll be good, trust me.” The two girls followed Sam’s recommendations and piled food on their plates. 

Two boys sat next to Mark he introduced them to her in the most Mark way possible. She rolled her eyes at him and went back to talking to the girls.  
“So are you looking forwards to the year?” Both girls nodded energetically.  
“Oh yeah! My mum says that Hogwarts is the best place in the world.” Chloe exclaimed. Rose agreed with her.  
“Aaron, my older brother loves it here. My parents both attended, and they did too. I have really high hopes.” Sam smiled at their enthusiasm. 

“Well your high hopes are going to succeed. Hogwarts is pretty much a second home to me. And the teachers are amazing.”  
As they were talking a boy walked up to their table.   
“Mark.” Even though he had only called for one of them, they all looked up. The boy frowned and crossed his arms. Sam couldn’t see Mark’s face, but she could tell that he looked confused.

“Damien?” Sam suddenly remembered who this boy was. He was in her year. He was pretty much a humanoid raincloud, always grouching around, snapping at people.   
“It’s good to see you Mark. Did you have a good summer?” Mark was slow to reply and when he spoke he sounded like he had no idea why he was talking.  
“Um…it was good.” Damien nodded and then left.

Joan leaned towards Mark.   
“What was that about?” Mark shrugged.  
“I have no idea. We’ve talked before but we’re not exactly friends. Weird.” Mark shrugged and went back to eating his breakfast. Sam stared into empty air. There was something about Damien that felt wrong. When she turned to the girls she could see that they felt the same way.

“Who was he?” Chloe asked with a worried frown. Sam tried her best to smile comfortingly.   
“That’s Damien. Don’t worry about him.” Chloe bit her lip and then nodded slowly.  
“Okay.” Sam looked at the two girls. So tiny and excited for their first year. So much like Sam had been last year. She didn’t know how but she felt a strong need to protect them and to be their friend. So, she would.  
“Okay girls, after breakfast do you want a tour of Hogwarts? I can show you some of my secret hiding spots?” To Sam’s relief the two girls nodded enthusiastically.   
“That’d be great!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so like I have said before I have a bit of a busy life what with school work and all. I will try to post every weekend but sometimes that's just not possible. But anyways, next chapter will probably just montage through first year so we can get into the main story as quick as possible. And don't worry, I do have a plan. Remember to leave a kudos if you liked the story and if you want please leave a comment, I don't bite and would love to hear what you guys think of this story. I'll see you again next time.


	8. I Never Want To Leave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe and some of her favorite moment from her first year at Hogwarts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I bet you all thought there wouldn't be an update this week. Well never fear, for here is the newest chapter. Sorry for not updating yesterday, procrastination is going to kill me one day. Now on with the chapter.   
> Enjoy!

Chloe found that the year passed in a Technicolor blur that moved so fast that she nearly got whiplash from trying to hold on to each and every exciting moment. If you asked her what her favorite moment was she would change her answer about ten times in five seconds. There was just so much to love. So, instead of trying to find favorites, she held onto the firsts.

The first time she attended a Hogwarts Quidditch game was full of hype and joy. It the first game of the year, and it was Hufflepuff vs Gryffindor. Mark had tried out for the team and, to everyone’s pleasure, made the team as a Chaser. He was the only second year on the team and as a result had been putting in a lot of effort to show that he was good enough to be there. Similarly, Frank had become the new Gryffindor Keeper, which meant that everyone in their group was going to be supporting both teams. 

Before the match began, at breakfast, both Mark and Frank were experiencing nerves. Frank was keeping it together fairly well but Chloe and Rose nearly had to force feed him toast. Mark, on the other hand, hadn’t stopped running his hands through his hair or questioning everything since they had arrived at the breakfast table

“Joanie what if I’m not good enough?” He asked Joan.   
“You will be good enough Mark, trust me.” She said placing a hand on the table next to his. He nodded and then frowned.   
“But what if I keep losing the ball?”  
“You won’t.” Sam told him.   
“What if I fall off my broom?” Mark now had a look of pure panic on his face.   
“You won’t. You’re a good flyer.” Sam reassured him.   
“But what if I-”  
“Mark!” Sam and Joan said this at the same time. He gave them a bewildered deer look. 

Sam nudged him with her shoulder playfully.  
“Mark. You are a good flyer. You will make an excellent Chaser. You will do great. We all believe in you.” Mark looked at her still unsure. Sam gave him a bright smile. Chloe nodded at them. She had been watching the conversation with some amount of amusement and Mark’s sudden panic. 

“I haven’t seen you play a Quidditch game yet Mark but I’ve seen you fly. If you can casually do that many loops around the castle, you can do this.” Caleb, who was sitting on one side of Chloe and had been previously talking to Adam about Quidditch player stats, turned to join in the conversation. 

“Yeah Mark, that was epic. I wish I could fly a broom like that.” He said this with somewhat of a dreamy far off look on his face. Chloe knew that ever since he had learnt about Quidditch he had wanted to know everything about it. His enthusiasm when it came to the subject was endlessly adorable. 

She turned away from Mark to face Frank.   
“And how are you doing?” She asked him. Frank chuckled quietly.  
“I’ll be alright. I think. The team’s counting on me so I’ve got to do my best. I’m not going to let them down.” Chloe nodded brightly.   
“That’s the spirit.” 

Addressing both boys, she said.  
“Just remember that this is your first game and that not everyone is going to be prefect from the get-go, but all of us are going to be cheering you on.” Adam rose his goblet in agreement.  
“Hear, hear.” Mark gave her a lopsided smile.  
“Thanks Chloe.”

It was getting into Autumn so it was quite fresh when they went outside. Everyone found their place in the stands. Sam had Mark’s Hufflepuff scarf wrapped around her neck and Joan had a Hufflepuff beanie on that Mark had had to force onto her head. Chloe had designed a banner using her art skills that changed colors to represent either Gryffindor or Hufflepuff depending on what she changed it to. It had taken a while and help from both Frank and Joan but in the end, she was very proud of it. 

When the game started, both houses started cheering themselves hoarse with enthusiasm. Chloe could make out the figures of both Frank and Mark on the ground and she put her hands around her mouth to cheer for them.

“Woooo! Go Gryffindor! Go Hufflepuff!” Everyone else around her joined in, all yelling different things. Then the ball was hurled into the air by the referee and the game commenced. 

Chloe had never really paid attention to Quidditch games before but at least she understood the basics. The players sped across the ground, hurling the ball from one player to another. Whenever Mark got the ball a cheer would rise up from their group. Sam was sitting on Chloe’s left and Chloe could tell that she was the one cheering the loudest for Mark. It was almost strange seeing Sam, who was usually a quiet girl who was hard to pull out of her shell, cheering loudly and springing out of her seat whenever Mark scored a goal.

In the end the result of the game was 210-190 with Hufflepuff as the winners. Mark had scored two goals and Frank had made a valiant effort to stop Hufflepuff scoring too much. Chloe had lost count of the amount of goals he had stopped at around his fifteenth save. The entire gang charged down to meet the two players. Mark had been nearly knocked over by Sam who had given him an enthusiastic hug before pulling away from him with a nervous smile and pink cheeks. Chloe had hugged Frank, if a little bit less enthusiastically. 

“You did really good Frank! You saved so many goals.” Frank gave her a nod.   
“I did my part. It’s a shame our seeker just couldn’t make it. But there’s still more games to come. We can try again.” She beamed at him. Meanwhile, Caleb and Mark were enthralled in a play by play recounting of everything that had happened during the game.

“Dude when you did that dodge past that bludger I thought you were going to run into the Seeker. How did you avoid her?” Caleb was asking. Mark gave a tired laugh. He was really worn out from the game.  
“I honestly have no idea. I think it was just pure instinct.” Caleb nodded.

“Whatever it was, it was awesome! I’ve never seen a Quidditch game before but like, that was so cool! I wish I could fly like that.” Mark put an arm around Caleb’s shoulder.  
“They do flying lessons for first years who are interested. If you want we can go sign you up for that.” Mark suggested. Caleb looked like he might explode with ecstasy.   
**********************************************************************************************************

Chloe had always had Christmas at her own house. Her mother and her would give each other gifts and they would watch old movies and spend the day together being happy. So, when Chloe got the letter from her mother saying that she wouldn’t be able to come home for Christmas that year as her job would be pulling her away from her house and that she was really sorry but it was just the way things were, Chloe didn’t know what to think.

As she had sat with her friends and listened to their plans for the holidays she felt a sense of melancholy. Caleb was looking forwards to seeing his sister, Adam was going to be having brunch with his cousin who, despite going to Hogwarts as well, hadn’t talked to him in ages. Frank was going to be visiting his grandparents, whom he cared about a lot. Rose was going home to celebrate Hanukkah. Even Mark and Joan were going home, because their parents didn’t want them spending too much time away. Chloe knew they didn’t really want to go home because they wouldn’t be able to do magic but at least they would be going home. 

The only other person in their group who wouldn’t be returning home was Sam. Her parents were going away on a road trip and they had notified Sam even before the year had started. Chloe was glad that she wouldn’t be alone but she wondered if Sam would talk to her or if she wouldn’t want to be bothered. Maybe she would be spending the holiday studying or something and she wouldn’t want Chloe to be bothering her. Chloe didn’t know. 

It was quite sad waving all her friend’s goodbye as they hopped onto the Hogwarts Express to go home. She hugged Rose, who promised to send her letters every week. Caleb told her he would do the same. When the train finally disappeared from sight Chloe felt a deep melancholy at the though that she would not be on it. She wrapped her arms around herself, it was getting cold. 

“Hey Chloe? You want to come back to the castle? It’s cool if you want to stay out here but it’s just really cold out here and I don’t want you to get sick.” Chloe turned to face Sam who was looking mildly concerned. She gave her a smile.  
“Yeah sorry, just lost in thought.” Sam nodded.  
“Yeah, I get that. Come on, I think it’s about to start snowing.” 

Sam was in fact right, it did start snowing as they were walking back to the castle. Chloe held out her hand to touch some of the icy cold flakes. Sam smiled.  
“It’s pretty isn’t it.” Chloe nodded.  
“It is. Nature always finds a way to surprise you with its beauty doesn’t it?” Sam almost looked taken aback at Chloe’s comment.  
“Yeah, I guess it does.”

There was an awkward pause between them. Chloe kept her hand out to touch the snow. Her and Sam had talked before but never one on one so this was a new experience. She knew that Sam was a bit of a private person and she kept to herself a lot so she always found it hard to find a way to start a conversation with her. Much to her surprise however, this time, she didn’t have to.  
“So, Chloe, if your parents had been home, what would you be doing?” Chloe bit her lip and looked at the ground. It wasn’t Sam’s fault, she didn’t know, she told herself. It still hurt a little to think about.

“Well, actually, it would just be my mum. My dad died when I was just a little kid.” She heard Sam draw a soft breath.   
“Oh Chloe. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-”  
“-No Sam it’s perfectly fine. You couldn’t have known. Besides, it was a long time ago and I didn’t really know him. It just hurts that I never got the chance to,” Chloe explained. Sam nodded.

Chloe decided to stop Sam from having such a guilty look on her face.  
“If I was going home the first thing my mum would do would be to tell me that I should have written more and I should tell her everything that’s happened to me since I left. She would make me do some homework every day, to make sure that I was ‘staying sharp’. Then on Christmas Day she would give me two presents and I would give her two. Then we’d have some pudding and curl up on the couch watching old movies. It’s not big or extravagant but it’s mine.”

Sam blinked, as if she wasn’t expecting Chloe to say anything. Then, slowly she spoke.  
“That sounds…nice. You’re right, you don’t need big things to be happy. Sometimes it’s in the quiet moments that you find the most peace.” Chloe beamed at her. Then she nudged Sam with her shoulder.  
“So, what about you?” 

Chloe listened as Sam told her about how her and her parents didn’t really have much family so they would go to church, swap presents, and then they would play board games together. Also small, also nice. As Sam talked Chloe watched her eyes brighten, her face soften, and the tension in her body release. By the time they had gotten into the castle Sam looked relaxed. Chloe was glad. Perhaps this Christmas wouldn’t be so bad.

And it wasn’t. Her and Sam studied together half the time and the other half they swapped storied of childhood and talked casually together. Over the weeks at Hogwarts over Christmas, Sam and Chloe found that they had a lot in common. They both excelled at Charms, they had small families, they weren’t very athletic, and the most important part of their lives was their friends. 

On Christmas Day Chloe woke up to find that she had a present from her mother and from, to her surprise, Rose. Her mother had knitted her a Hufflepuff scarf and Rose had sent her some really nice gingerbread biscuits. Her mother sent her love and apologies and Rose sent her a story about how Aaron had fallen out of a tree and broken his arm. Chloe felt a warm feeling in her chest as she read the letter. Rose had that ability. The ability to make Chloe feel good no matter what.

At Christmas Dinner, Sam and Chloe broke several crackers that exploded in the coolest fireworks that Chloe had ever seen, and gave really cool presents, like a chess set and a purple beanie with scarf. The food itself was delicious. Chloe could have kept eating this food for her whole life. She hoped the elves were at least getting paid for their hard work because what they were creating could very well be regarded as art. 

When everyone came back, Chloe greeted them with hugs and smiles. Everyone was talking at once and everyone had so many cool stories. Even Mark and Joan had had a really cool Christmas with a five-hour long game of something called HuggerMugger being involved. Chloe had no idea what it was but the siblings seemed to have enjoyed it greatly. When Joan asked how Chloe and Sam’s Christmas had been, the two girls merely shared a knowing look and smile.

Her first all-nighter for an exam happened late in the year. There were so many of them that even Joan was overwhelmed. The group had decided to split up into different study groups. Joan and Frank, Sam and Mark, Adam and Caleb, and Chloe and Rose. Chloe had been given a study tip by Sam about flash cards being useful, and that was how Chloe found herself quizzing Rose about the different properties of Potions at 3am in the morning with brightly colored cards.

“And which way do you stir a Draught of Peace after you’ve added the powdered unicorn horn?” Chloe asked. Rose groaned and slumped down on her chair.  
“I hate this,” She complained. Chloe sighed.  
“Well you’ve got to do it. Exams are really important Rose.” Rose groaned again.

“I know I know. I just hate this. And I’m really tired.” Chloe rolled her eyes.  
“It’s not that late.” Rose pointed to the clock on the wall. Chloe looked. When she saw what it said, she was startled to say the least.  
“Okay maybe it is that late. But it doesn’t matter. Come on, we need to revise or we’ll fail.” Rose sighed.  
“Okay. At least tomorrow is Saturday.” 

So, they kept studying. Chloe was writing down the effects of a Levitating Charm for the third time when Rose asked.  
“What do you want to do when you’re older?” Chloe looked at the other girl confused. Rose shrugged.  
“I’m bored and tired. Jut go with it.” Chloe nodded and turned herself away from her table.

“Well I don’t really know. I’m thinking something to do with art but I don’t know how much that’s an option for me anymore. I mean aside from the optional classes it’s not exactly like I would be well prepared for a career in art. So, I don’t know. Maybe something that helps people. Yeah, I think I’d like that. To help people.” She turned to Rose who had a sleepy smile on her face. 

“That’s nice. I think you’d be a good artist no matter what Chlo.” Chloe tilted her head down to hide her smile.   
“Thanks Rose.” Rose giggled quietly.  
“Chlo. I didn’t realize I said that. It suits you though.” She giggled again. The sleep deprivation seemed to be getting to her. It must have also been affecting Chloe because she felt herself blushing.  
“I like it.” 

Chloe thought for a moment and then she asked.  
"What about you Rose? What do you want to be?" Rose sighed.  
"I like making things. Not art like you. Food. My parents said I'd make a good chef." Chloe smiled at Rose. Her love for food was never ending.  
"Well hopefully that skill at making things transfers to Potions."

Chloe turned to check the clock. It was 4:30am. Chloe sighed. They really should be getting to sleep. She turned back to Rose to find that she had promptly fallen asleep in her chair. Chloe smiled. She had an expression of wonder like her dreams had already grabbed her and pulled her through the looking glass. Chloe shut her book and climbed into the chair next to Rose.  
“Goodnight.” She whispered quietly before she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. 

But with all firsts come some lasts. Her last night at Hogwarts was bittersweet. Hufflepuff had won the house cup, which made for a very happy last dinner for Chloe. Mark was especially thrilled as Slytherin had come third after Ravenclaw so that meant Joan had been beaten by both him and Sam. Chloe was mainly just soaking in the joy at her table. It was exhilarating.

When she left Hogwarts, she felt like she was leaving behind a friend. The castle had become so dear to her over the past year. It was where she’d made so many amazing friends, had learnt magic, and had felt the happiest she might have ever been. In a way, Hogwarts had become a second home to her. 

Even worse then leaving Hogwarts was leaving all her friends. She made each and every one of them swear to write to her with the promise that she would write to all of them. She didn’t know how she was going to survive the summer without them. She gained so much energy from being around other people and without human contact she would become lethargic. But at least there was the promise of another year. Another magical year.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's the first year of Hogwarts for our adorable nerds. I can't believe that the last episode is in less than ten days, I'm not ready. I will continue updating this story after the show ends, do not fear. But here is where I will leave you for now until I return with the newest chapter.   
> Also Happy Pride Month!


	9. At My Highest Highs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang returns for a second year.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again I return a little late but in my defense I have been listening to lots of podcasts. This chapter is once again, a little bit longer. But I'm pretty sure that's a good thing.  
> Enjoy!

Caleb had been waiting for this moment all summer. Usually he loved the holidays and found the school year horribly boring but that had changed. Now he went to Hogwarts. Now he was learning magic with all of his friends. Chloe, Mark, Rose, Sam, Frank, Joan, and of course, Adam. He was missing everyone but it was definitely Adam that he was missing the most. He missed his geekiness. He missed his bad jokes. He missed the way he would listen to Caleb ranting about Quidditch facts. If he talked to Alice about Quidditch he would be told to shut up. He just missed his best friend. 

So, when it was getting closer to the end of the holidays, Caleb was waiting constantly for a letter or a knock on the door or anything. As the weeks drained on he almost started doubting himself. What if it wasn’t real? What if Hogwarts had just been a crazy dream? What if he had imagined all those people, all those great moments? What if Mark wasn’t real? What if Sam wasn’t or Chloe? What if Adam wasn’t real? 

These doubts did worm their way into his head from time to time so he would employ a trick to remind himself. He would find a memory for each of his senses and he would focus on that. Smell: The warm fire crackling in the Hufflepuff dorm as he and his friends lay in the common room hiding from the cold. Sight: Fireworks exploding across the Charms classroom when he had accidentally said the wrong spell. Touch: The soft wood of a Quidditch broom before his first flying lesson. Taste: Honeyduke’s chocolate at 1am when he was studying with Adam. Sounds: Adam laughing at one of Caleb’s stupid jokes. If he just held onto these things then he could remember. And he could keep hoping. 

When he heard a tapping of his bedroom window he had thrown himself of his bed and yanked it open. Outside there was a big grey owl with a familiar looking letter in its beak. He had ushered the bird in and read the letter as quickly as possible. It was a letter informing Caleb that Hogwarts was starting again September 1st and it had a list of all the different books he would need. Carlos had attached a letter telling him to go to Diagon Alley and get his own money from Gringotts, just like he had taught Caleb. Without further ado he had sped down the stairs and told his parents to arrange a trip into London as soon as possible. 

The trip had been good. Caleb had shown his parents Diagon Alley and to say they were speechless may have been understating it a little. He had found it very entertaining to tell his parents everything about this crazy world. Alice had tried to convince them to buy her something magical from the many colourful shops but their parents told her not until she was eleven. Caleb looked at his and ruffled her hair. She gave him an annoyed glance.  
“Only two more years.”

The morning of September 1st Caleb had been ready to go first. He had even eaten breakfast in his robes with his trunk sitting next to him. His owl Merlin had been rattling his cage as if he knew what was coming. His dad had found it funny.  
“Eager to leave us, aren’t you?” He had teased. Caleb had merely grinned at the ground. He had been ready to go all year. 

The platform was crowded. Caleb had given his family quick hugs and promises before charging into the brick wall to find himself once more in a world of colour and happily babbling students. The crimson Hogwarts Express gleamed and it looked like it had been given a new coat of paint. He looked around the crowds for a familiar face but didn’t see any. 

Then he felt a tap on his shoulder.  
“Hey stranger.” Caleb spun around to see Adam grinning at him. Caleb immediately charged him with a hug.  
“Dude!” He exclaimed. Adam hugged him back.  
“Meathead,” He greeted Caleb once he let go. Caleb lightly slapped him.  
“Dork.” 

Caleb then noticed the girl standing behind Adam. She was a fair bit older and was wearing shiny new Slytherin robes. She held herself with an authority that Caleb knew would be a bad idea to question. Her eyes held a hint of wariness, like she wasn’t sure if she should trust Caleb.

“Adam, aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?” Adam turned to her with a beam.  
“Yeah sorry Annabelle. This is Caleb, he’s the guy I was telling you about. He’s kinda my best friend.” Caleb acted offended.  
“Kinda?” He questioned. Adam laughed.  
“Okay he is my best friend.”

Annabelle nodded slowly and then held out a hand.   
“I’m Annabelle, I’m Adam’s cousin.” Caleb took her hand.  
“I figured. Adam’s told me a lot about you,” he said. Annabelle smiled at him and for some reason Caleb felt a chill.  
“Likewise,” She said with that same smile attached to her face. 

Adam didn’t pick up on the vibe going between the two of them.   
“Come on Caleb,” he said with a gesture to the train, “We’d better get going.” Caleb nodded at him.  
“Yeah, let’s go.” He decided to do the polite thing and turned to Annabelle.

“It was nice meeting you,” He told her. She didn’t say anything and turned to Adam.  
“I will see you later. No go run along and have fun with your friend.” When she said friend, Caleb could have sworn a slight amount of distaste crossed her expression. But he must have been imagining things because Adam nodded happily and led Caleb by the arm over to the train. 

He and Adam soon found themselves in what seemed to be an impossibly large compartment with everyone of their friends. Frank was sitting against the window reading a book on Wizarding World Wars. Chloe sitting next to him and Rose had her head on Chloe’s shoulder and looked like she was asleep.  
“She stayed up until 1am last night packing,” Chloe explained. 

Joan was against the window on the other side also reading a book but this one was on Complex Transfigurations. She had smiled and greeted the boys on their arrival. Caleb had smiled back. He had always like Joan. There was just something about her that made her feel approachable. Mark had his arm slung around Sam’s shoulder. Mark had highfived both of them with his free hand upon their entry. Sam had just smiled. When Caleb seated himself down, next to Rose, opposite to Adam, he felt like he had never left them. 

The Great Feast was amazing. Caleb had actually forgotten how good it was. Last time he had sat at the table on the first day of the year he had met all his friends in Hufflepuff for the first time and he had nearly made himself sick from eating. This time he just enjoyed the food and listened to his friends’ stories about the holidays. It sounded like everyone had had a lot of fun. Caleb was glad. 

The first night in the Hufflepuff dorm room was much like every night had been since his first one ever. He got into bed and was the first one asleep while the other three boys talked. Caleb lay on his bunk and smiled at the thought the he was back. He was with his friends again. He would be able to do magic again. And, this thought was one that had been in the back of his head for a while, he could fly again. 

When Caleb had first learnt about Quidditch and how wizards could literally fly on broomsticks he had thought that there was no way. Once he had seen it for himself and had learnt everything he could about it, he knew that he had to try it. So, he had signed up for the flying lessons held on Tuesday’s and Friday’s for anyone who wanted to learn flying. Caleb had not been the only first year there but he was one of the only ones that stayed after the first lesson. Because, as it turned out, he was good at it.

To him flying felt so simple, like walking. It felt like the broom came a part of him. When he was in the air it was like nothing else mattered, like he was the only one in the world. Everything just fell into place and he could move swiftly and happily around the Training Grounds like a bird. And with the knowledge that he was good at flying, confirmed by the coach who was teaching them flight, Caleb started wondering if maybe he could play Quidditch for the Hufflepuff team.

He had been checking out who would be leaving the team that year and the positions that would be open. The Keeper would be leaving but, as Caleb wasn’t much of a defender, he was more interested in the fact that a Chaser was leaving. That meant that if Caleb got the spot he would be flying alongside Mark, whom Caleb knew was very good, and was one of his closest friends. So, as he lay in his bed that night he decided that he was going to do a few practice flights and then, he was going to show his skills to Mark to see if he thought that Caleb could make the team. 

It was a few weeks later when Caleb told Mark to come to the Training Grounds. Caleb had done some flight practice and had made sure that he felt that he was still good. Mark had been somewhat confused by Caleb’s request but he had accepted none the less. Caleb had then passed Frank and decided that two Quidditch players was better than one and had invited the Gryffindor to the Grounds as well. Then he had gone to get his broom.

When Caleb got to the Grounds he was a little bit early so he decided to do some flying to calm his nerves. Because there were nerves involved. Caleb guessed that showing his skills to two of his friends who knew how to fly well was a bit scary. And it wasn’t even like he had a good broom. It was just one that the school owned that Caleb had dibs on. He didn’t know if he even had enough money to get his own broom. But why should that stop him. After all, Mark and Frank didn’t have their own brooms.

Caleb did a few laps of the Grounds and then decided to start doing some tricks. He did a few that he had read about inn his copy of Quidditch Through the Ages and then he did a few that he just felt were cool, like a barrel roll and a somersault. No thinking. No considering his next move. Just him and his broom. Perfect.

When Caleb looked down at the previously empty Grounds he saw two people standing there. Mark and Frank. Caleb sloped his broom down and descended. When he jumped off his broom Mark and Frank both had impressed expressions on their faces. 

“Caleb, dude that was really cool,” Mark told him. Frank nodded in agreement.  
“You seem to have a talent for flying. Have you considered joining the school team?” Frank asked him. Caleb shuffled his feet and drummed his fingers on the wood of the broom.  
“Actually that was what I brought you here for.” 

Caleb told them his plan to join the Hufflepuff team and how he wanted to check with them first to see if they thought he was good enough. When he asked their opinions, the replies he got were very positive.  
“Dude you should totally do that! It would be so awesome being able to fly by your side. They’d be idiots not to let you join!” Mark told him with confidence. Caleb nearly blushed.  
“Thanks Mark,” he said. Mark clapped him on the shoulder.  
“Anytime Caleb.”

The tryouts happened a week after. By that point Caleb had officially told his friends about how he wanted to join the team. They all thought that it would be an awesome idea. Adam had given him a bright smile and said  
“I can’t wait to see you fly Caleb. I’m sure you’ll do amazing.” When Caleb heard that he felt his heart warm with pride and gratitude for his friend.

The day of the tryouts was a cold windless day, which was good, as windy days made it hard to direct the broom well. Everyone had piled into the stands to watch, except for Mark who also had to tryout for his old spot, but unless someone else really good cropped up it was pretty certain that he would get the position. Caleb was glad that he would have a friend there with him. Having Mark there really helped to settle his nerves. 

The tryouts went smoothly. Caleb did the laps with all the other Chasers, he shot goals, he could do all the drills as well as, and maybe even better than, the other kids trying out. The captain of the team, Doug Eiffel, who had been given the position and had consequently stepped down from being a prefect, had given Caleb a thumbs up after the tryouts.  
“Good job kid. I’m not saying anything concrete but I think you have made my Top 5 for potential Chasers. You did good.” A week later Doug had pulled him aside and had proclaimed with a huge grin  
“You got the spot Caleb. Welcome to the Hufflepuff team!” 

The first game of the season had been Ravenclaw vs Gryffindor. Gryffindor had won convincingly and Frank had made some especially spectacular saves. Now the Hufflepuff vs Slytherin game was on the horizon and Mark and Joan had recently been getting into some good old sibling rivalry as Joan was refusing to wear any Hufflepuff merch because she ‘was not going to betray her house just because her brother wanted her to’. Caleb knew better than to take it personally. He also knew that Joan would definitely be turning up to the game drenched in Hufflepuff colours, whether by her choice or not. 

Caleb remembered the nerves that Mark had been facing the first time he was going to play. Now Caleb understood. So many questions plagued his mind. What if he screwed up and let the team down? What if he embarrassed himself in front of the whole school? What if he missed every shot he took and he kept dropping the ball? So many chances to fail horribly. What if Eiffel removed him from the team because he wasn’t good enough? Caleb didn’t know how he could take that.

The morning of the game Caleb didn’t turn up to breakfast. Instead he went to the top of the castle and paced backwards and forwards. He really liked it up there. So quiet. In some way it reminded him of being on a broom. Not a very large way but some way. It was there that Adam found him. Caleb didn’t even notice the other boy’s presence until he bumped into him.

“Hey meathead,” Adam greeted him with a grin. Caleb was surprised.  
“Adam! Hey, how did you find me?” Adam shrugged.  
“I’m your best friend Caleb, I know where you go when you’re stressed. Speaking of, do you want to talk about it?” Adam looked genuinely concerned. Caleb felt everything that he had been holding suddenly fall out.

“It’s just that I don’t want to let the team down. I mean what if I’m not good enough? I just don’t want anyone to be disappointed in me.” Adam nodded and put his hand on Caleb’s arm.  
“Listen Caleb, you are going to do great. Don’t worry about disappointing them, because you won’t. I know it. I know you and I know that you won’t leave that pitch unless you have given your all. So just go out there and play. Do what you have been dreaming about for a year. And remember, we’re all going to be there cheering you on. So, if you need a confidence booster, then just find us in the crowd.” Caleb sucked in a deep breath.

“Okay. Okay, you’re right. I’m just being stupid.” Adam laughed.  
“You’re not being stupid. It’s normal to get nerves. Remember me before exams?” Adam reminded him. Caleb laughed at the memory of Adam literally setting his socks on fire because of stress.  
“You were being such a dork.” Adam nodded.  
“And you’re being a meathead.” He gestured behind him.  
“Come on. Let’s get some food into you. And you need to see Joan.”

Caleb stood on the pitch gripping his broom. Mark was right next to him and Caleb could see the nerves hidden under his mask of confidence. Caleb looked into the stands. There they were. He could see Chloe’s giant Hufflepuff banner as well as the yellow blotch in the stands that was Joan Bryant. She was wearing a Hufflepuff beanie, socks, robes (courtesy of Mark), scarf, yellow and black face paint done by Chloe, and had a giant fluffy toy badger in her lap. Mark really had outdone himself. Caleb smiled and fought back the nerves. He looked at Mark.

“Don’t worry, it’s going to be a great game.” Mark looked surprised that Caleb was the one comforting him but then he grinned.  
“It certainly will be.”

And, it actually was. Hufflepuff won 300-230. Caleb scored four goals and Mark scored six. The victory party in the Hufflepuff dorms was promised to be legendary. Caleb felt like he was floating on air. Adam came up to and grinned up at him.  
“Nice game Michaels,” He said tapping him on the black writing on the back of his Quidditch robes. Caleb laughed.  
“I think I did pretty good.” Adam nodded.  
“Better believe it Superstar.” Then he tugged on Caleb’s arm.  
“C’mon, we’d better get to the dorms. I’m sure they will want to drown you in praise.” Caleb grinned. That didn't sound half bad. So he let himself be led along by Adam with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's the chapter. We have finally met Annabelle in the flesh and Caleb is now a Quidditch Superstar. If it's not obvious I am absolutely in love with Caleb and Adam's relationship. I can't believe that The Bright Sessions is ending in about two days. I have utterly no idea what's coming. At least I have a little bit more control over this story though! So this is where I leave you for this time and I hope we all survive the finale.


	10. It's About Survival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam finds out something worrying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me??? Updating early???? More likely than you think.  
> In all seriousness though yes this is a day earlier than usual and this chapter may give a few clues about where this is heading.  
> Enjoy!

Going to a magic school did not automatically mean that all the classes were going to be interesting. Sure, everything she had learnt the first year had been eye opening and had thrilled her to no end but now in third year the novelty had kind of worn off. And it didn’t help that she was not very good at any of the magic she was being taught. She could barely turn a mouse into a teacup, she was pretty sure she was one wrong incantation from being hurled headfirst out of Charms, and the only thing she could see in her teacup was a fail grade in Divination. 

Her only saving grace was magic theory. She loved learning about the history of magic, all those wars and new discoveries. If you asked her to give you a complete instructions list on how to do Charms she could. She just didn’t seem to be able to make them work. Fortunately, she wasn’t alone in this. Joan was also pretty terrible at prac work. The two of them could bond over theory. And then there was Mark.

Mark, who was perfect. He seemed to excel at anything he touched. He was top of his class when it came to spell work, he made friends with anyone he talked to, he was amazing at Quidditch, and he wasn’t too shabby at theory either. Sam couldn’t help but be a little jealous at the way he passed through so easily. He barely paid attention in class but still somehow managed to pass with flying colours. And it was impossible not to like him. Even Damien liked him. And Damien hated absolutely everyone. 

Mark may have been amazing at everything but he didn’t really like theory. He liked practical stuff where he could do flashy spells. Sam was best friends with Mark but even she could admit that he was a bit of a show off. So, when it came to classwork the Bryant Sibling that Sam found it easier to be around, was Joan. 

Unfortunately, they didn’t have any classes together because they were in different year groups. However, one particular afternoon Sam and Joan had arranged to meet in the library to do some revision for the tests that they would have to do in the coming week. Sam had offered for Joan to come with her to the Ravenclaw common room but Joan had said that it was fine to meet in the library. So, that was where Sam was headed. 

When she reached the library however she found that Joan was having an argument in what was probably meant to be a hushed voice with Annabelle. Sam knew that Annabelle and Joan had a rivalry and she wondered what it was they were arguing about this time. As she got closer she heard Annabelle say  
“Joan I respect your opinion but why does it have to be so close minded.” Joan laughed angrily.  
“Annabelle, I respect your opinion but why does it have to be so poisonous. The AM are evil. We’ve covered this. ” Annabelle sighed.  
“And I thought there was a chance for you to think. Don’t believe everything you hear”

Joan scoffed.  
“Please don’t tell me you’re one of those ‘the media is lying to us, the government is destroying us, The AM will lead us to freedom’ people.” Annabelle had a dangerous glint in her eye. Sam wasn’t exactly sure she wanted to be in this argument. And what was The AM? And why did Joan hate it so much?

Annabelle leaned towards Joan.  
“The AM do the things they do for the betterment of the human race. They are trying to move us forwards. Muggles are the past. All their pathetic technology. Why bother with it when you can elevate wizards? When you can eliminate the useless and raise the useful” Annabelle asked in a honey laced tone.  
Joan looked just about as disgusted as Sam felt.

“How can you say that?”  
“Quite easily actually.” Sam looked at Annabelle for any sign that she was joking. She was not. Joan asked another question, the anger in her voice growing.  
“So what about Muggleborns? Just get rid of them all?” Annabelle laughed. Sam felt a cold thrill run through her spine.  
“Don’t be stupid Joan. Muggleborns are beneficial if you look at it the right way. Some of them have incredible grasps of magic. We can learn about how magic occurs in people that should by all means be non-magic. But some Muggleborns are threats. Some shouldn’t be allowed power.” Joan was at a loss for words, and quite frankly, so was Sam. How could Annabelle say those things? 

Annabelle laughed at Joan’s expression.  
“Don’t worry Joan. You would be one Muggleborn who could be helpful. If you would just understand that the AM want to help everyone-”  
“And what about people like me?” Sam nearly shouted. Joan and Annabelle looked at her startled. Sam realised that she hadn’t actually been part of this argument. She was about to look down sheepishly but her anger gave her the courage to stand her ground.  
Annabelle quickly recovered from her shock and gave her a sharp smile.

“Don’t you worry Samantha. I don’t think you could pose much of a threat to anyone if you tried.” Sam tried to find something to reply with but Joan stepped in for her.  
“Annabelle. You can have horrible opinions and you can argue with me, but never insult my friends. I think you should leave.” Annabelle looked almost disappointed as she got up and left. Joan turned to Sam.

“Sorry about that Sam. Annabelle and I were arguing about-”  
“-What’s the AM?” Sam interjected. Joan blinked and then sighed.  
“The AM,” she began, “are a despicable group of people who torture Muggles for the ‘Greater Good’. They believe that Muggles should be controlled by the wizards and that wizards should rise above all in rule. They also believe that Muggleborns are only useful if they are ‘special’. They’re not from a particularly new mindset but the group themselves is only about seven years old.” Sam felt a sharp pang of terror run through her. There was a group out there like that? People who would, if given the chance, kill her parents and probably torture her. She felt sick. Joan noticed and put her hand on Sam’s.  
“Don’t worry about them. They aren’t going to come after you. And Annabelle isn’t a threat. She’s just wrong. Now come on, let’s do some study.”

The next day Sam found herself in the library again, this time alone, looking at anything that she could find on the AM. There wasn’t much, as they weren’t official or old, but what Sam found in newspaper clippings and letters frightened her.  
“That group is despicable,” A voice said from behind her. Sam jumped in shock and turned to find Damien lurking behind her.  
“What are you doing Damien?” She asked. He shrugged and walked around the table to sit down. 

“Just seeing what my fellow members of Ravenclaw are getting up to.” Sam glared at him.  
“It feels like you’re stalking me.” He gave her a side smile.  
“Well, maybe a little.” Sam gave him a disgusted look and looked back down at her research. Damien kept talking.

“I mean, Muggleborns that are useful would basically be a pet under the rule of the AM. And anyone who doesn’t like it gets locked away and tortured for fun.” Sam groaned and faced Damien.  
“What do you want Damien?” She asked, a little confused, a lot annoyed. He gave a nonchalant shrug.  
“Trying to make conversation. People like us have to band together when there are people like them around.” Sam stared at him.

“What do you mean, people like us?” He shrugged again.  
“Muggleborns who would get tossed away like an empty can if people like her got in charge. Because they’re scared of us.”  
Sam folded her arms. Why was it that she was having a conversation like this with Damien of all people?  
“You think the AM is scared of Muggles and Muggleborns?” He smirked.

“I do actually. Muggles have so much technology and they outnumber us at least 10 to 1, maybe more. Muggleborns are an anomaly. If the wrong Muggles found out about the wizarding community think about what could happen. So, the AM thinks that the best way to stop that happening is attacking first.”  
Sam was dumbfounded for a moment. That was a surprising sensical and logical argument. She nodded.

“Okay, that makes sense. When did you think that up?” Damien did his signature move, a shrug.  
“Lots of free time I guess.”  
It was at this moment another voice called from somewhere across the library.  
“Sam hey, I was looking for you.” It was Chloe. Sam felt her heart lift at the thought of having a friend here. Damien creeped her out enough as it was and this conversation wasn’t helping.  
Chloe walked over. She looked at Damien.

“Hey Damien. Is there a reason why you’re here?” Damien smirked at her.  
“Well if it isn’t Little Miss High and Mighty. What brings you to talk to a common man like me?” Chloe stared at him.  
“Well I’m mostly here for my friend and I’m just trying to be polite despite the fact that I don’t really like you Damien.” Damien laughed.  
“Well I’ll be on my way in that case.” He stood.  
“Goodbye Sam.” Then he walked away. 

Chloe sat down where Damien had been sitting.  
“Man that dude annoys me. Does he have to be such a jerk about everything?” Sam took a move out of Damien’s playbook and shrugged.  
“I don’t know. Maybe he just wants to be a jerk about everything.” Chloe sighed dramatically.  
“What a shame.” 

Chloe looked at the stuff on the table.  
“What’s this?” For some reason Sam felt a little self-conscious.  
“Oh, it’s nothing. Just a side project.” Chloe, the girl who was curious about literally everything, picked up one of the newspapers and read it.  
“The Am attacks a Muggle village and kills 12 people,” She read, frowning. Chloe looked up at Sam.  
“Well this is awfully depressing. What type of side project is this?”

Sam looked at the table and fiddled with a quill on the table, moving her fingers across the soft feathers. She felt hesitant to tell Chloe. She knew it was probably stupid but she couldn’t shake the feeling hanging in her stomach. Chloe tapped the desk in front of Sam, as if to draw her attention back.  
“Sam?” She questioned. Sam shook herself slightly.  
“Yeah, yeah sorry just got lost in my thoughts.”

When she didn’t say anything, Chloe prompted her again.  
“So, Sam, what type of side project is this?” Sam bit her lip.  
“It’s kind of stupid,” She said in a half-hearted attempt to dissuade Chloe from the subject. Chloe was undeterred and she took one of Sam’s hands, as if sensing that Sam might need comfort.  
“Hey, I’m sure it’s not stupid.”  
Sam sighed and explained.

“I overheard Joan and Annabelle talking about something called The AM the other day. Joan gave me the basics but I just wanted to know what it was. I felt a bit silly not knowing what it was. I mean, I’ve been a part of the wizarding community for three years and I didn’t know about a terrorist group that could be a huge threat to me?” Sam shifted in her seat awkwardly.  
Chloe smiled at her.  
“Well there you go. You wanted to be well informed of a situation that you felt was threatening. That’s not stupid. It’s very human in fact.” Her comforting smile turned into a curious one.  
“So, what have you found out?”

The next hour consisted of Sam and Chloe finding out everything they could about The AM. Everything they gathered was vague but worrying. The AM had captured both Muggles and Muggleborns in the past. Any people who had escaped had been fairly traumatised by what had happened. The AM hadn’t really been doing much recently except for a few disappearances here and there that seemed to be there doing. For no reason at all that gave Sam an intense feeling of fear. Chloe’s reaction had mostly been of disgust.  
"I knew they were bad but this seems nearly supervillainy," She exclaimed. That had earned a laugh from Sam and she pushed that foreboding feeling from mind.

The rest of the year Sam was mostly able to put all thoughts of The AM to the back of her mind. She started checking the papers anxiously for mentions of The AM but apart from that she was mostly normal. She went to Quidditch games with her friends, she studied for exams with Joan, and she talked with Mark. No matter how many friends she had, none of them could make her feel as happy as she was when with Mark. Now matter how dark things seemed, Mark still remained to be bright. And Sam loved it. She loved the way he made her feel, even if she was slightly denying how deep those feelings ran. 

When it came to the final day of the year, after Hufflepuff had celebrated their second consecutive win, which Mark would not let her live down, Sam felt just as sad as she had before, but was glad to return home. She hugged everyone goodbye on the platform and promised them she’d write and that the next year would be as amazing as ever. Because it would be. She was sure of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so before we talk about the fic, let's talk about the show. I would like everyone to know that my soul was torn apart by all of the emotions that episode gave me. Round of applause to Lauren Shippen and the entire Bright Sessions crew. Thanks for inspiring me to write my first fanfic for Ao3. Speaking of the fanfic, I hope that although this chapter was mostly about introducing a major plot point for later down the line, and was very dialogue heavy, you all enjoyed it. See you again next time!


	11. Learn Their Hearts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe in her third year

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the late update guys, this is a pretty long chapter and I have been feeling a little low recently. But I do want to keep my promise about continuing to update so that is what I am doing. I would also like to thank everyone who has commented or left a kudos on this work. It is such a great feeling to know there are people out there reading and liking this work. Without much further ado I shall take you onto the chapter.   
> Enjoy!

It was another year and Chloe was glad for that. Summer passed in a bland blur of letters from friends and her mother getting her to undertake different activities. One thing that did happen over the holidays was that Chloe started and finished questioning her sexuality. She started doing it because she was just genuinely curious. The answer that she ended up at didn’t really surprise her, she had always known that she didn’t like one specific gender and that she was more of a romance person that a sexual person. 

Apart from that, there wasn’t much else to do. After what seemed like a lifetime however, her the blur ended when she went shopping for Hogwarts with Rose, looking at all the different things in Diagon Alley, wishing they had enough money to buy them. All the magic and spending time with her best friend filled her with an energy she hadn’t felt all holidays. 

On the train they all ate sweets and talked about the holidays. Chloe felt the happiest she had felt in months. Another start, so much road ahead of them. Joan was there, she was starting her fifth year at Hogwarts and she was already feeling nervous about OWLS. There was Mark, with his enthusiasm and jokes, and Sam, who had a new pet cat called Darwin. Frank had been visiting relatives all summer break and was upset that he had barely had time to paint. Chloe had the opposite problem. She had had too much time to create art.

Adam had gone to see Shakespeare at the Globe with his cousin Annabelle, someone who freaked Chloe out a lot, but she was still glad that Adam had had a good holiday. Caleb had flown his broom so much in his backyard that his sister hid it from him in an attempt to get him to stop. It did not work. And then there was Rose who Chloe didn’t get to hear any new stories from, as they had all been communicated to her via hundreds of letters.

The Hogwarts feast was as delicious and beautiful as always. Dorm rooms were the same as always, Chloe on the top bunk, Rose on the bottom one. When lessons started Chloe fell back into the rhythm, with the added classes of Care of Magical Creatures and Divination. Chloe loved learning about all the different types of magic animals and Rose was scarily good at Divination. She later told Chloe that it was because her mother was a Seer. 

“It’s kind of weird,” she explained “having your mother know some things before they even happen. Like sometimes she gets genuine visons, sometimes it’s just a strange feeling about something.” Chloe thought that having a mother like that would be terrifying. 

It was about five weeks into the school year when Mark came to the group with an idea.  
“What if, just to celebrate being here, and to just have a bit of fun, we have a sleepover? Like we all just go to a common room and bring blankets and chill all night? What do you guys think?” He asked. Joan pursed her lips.  
“If we do this then we can’t do it on a school night.” Sam nodded  
“Yeah. So, a Saturday night?” 

There was a group consensus. They would have a sleepover on Saturday night in the Hufflepuff common room, which was chosen for it’s comfort and the fact that half of their group was in that house. Everyone would bring blankets and good vibes. Mark would use his goodwill with the elves to score them food. Sam and Joan would use their combined magic to see if they could project musicals on the wall so they could watch. It would be perfect. 

In the leadup to the sleepover Chloe noticed both Adam and Rose were acting a little bit cagey. Chloe asked Rose about it and Caleb asked Adam. They both said a very similar thing, that they were just planning to tell the group something important at the sleepover but that they shouldn’t worry. Chloe didn’t and she told Caleb that he shouldn’t as well. She knew that he probably would. She knew how much he cared about his best friend. Of course she did. She cared about Rose in a very similar way. 

The sleepover started out in what Chloe assumed to be normal sleepover fashion, not that she would know as this was her first. They ate the popcorn and chocolate that Mark had acquired from the elves. They watched Singin’ in the Rain and My Fair Lady. Joan and Mark knew all the words and could barely contain themselves from bursting into song. Chloe noticed Mark quietly whispering some of the words. She also noticed Sam watching him with a soft smile. She made a mental note to tease Sam about that later on.

After they finished My Fair Lady it was around 10pm. Adam shifted in his seat next to Caleb and said  
“Hey guys. Can I tell you something?” Everyone turned to him.   
“Sure, what’s up?” Asked Sam. Adam bit his lip and looked kind of nervous. Caleb smiled at him.

“Dude, it’s cool. You can tell us anything.” Adam nodded. He paused for a few moments and then he said  
“I’m gay.” There was a moment of silence. Chloe felt a burst of joy go through her. Someone else in her friend group wasn’t straight!  
Caleb looked at Adam fondly.  
“Thanks for telling us Adam.” Chloe nodded.

“We’re glad you feel that you can be honest with us about this.” Adam bit his lip.  
“So are you guys, like, cool with it?” Everyone in the room nodded and said words of assent.   
“Dude of course we’re cool with it.”  
“It’s who you are Adam.” Adam smiled at his friends.

“Thanks, it means a lot to me that you reacted like this.” Chloe noticed Rose was giving Adam a strange look. She felt her stomach drop a little. Was Rose not okay with it? Before her fears could get too out of hand Rose spoke.  
“Well now we’re on the subject I guess now is a good time to say that I’m also gay.”

Everyone looked at Rose. Chloe felt electricity shoot through her. That was the thing that Rose had wanted to tell her! Her best friend was also gay. Chloe couldn’t stop a smile coming to her face.   
“That’s great Rose!” She told her. Rose smiled at her.  
“Thanks Chlo.” Adam laughed.

“Did we both plan to come out on the same night?” He asked, still laughing. Rose gave him a sheepish grin.  
“I guess we did.”  
Adam grinned and asked jokingly 

“So does anyone else have something they want to tell us?” At the same time Mark and Joan answered  
“I’m bi.”  
“I’m bisexual.” The siblings stared at each other in surprise before bursting into laughter. Everyone else in the room joined in. Chloe was starting to think no one in her group was straight. 

After Mark and Joan recovered from their surprise they turned to the group.  
“I’m going to ask seriously, because we have just had four comings out this evening would anyone else like to join the party?” Chloe didn’t even think before she blurted out  
“I figured out that I’m asexual and panromantic.” It was Rose’s turn to look at her with surprise and joy.

“Really? That’s so cool!” Chloe blushed and looked down.   
Everyone looked at Frank, Sam, and Caleb, the three in the room who hadn’t done any coming out. They looked at each other. Frank decided to speak first.  
“Well I guess I haven’t really thought about it all that much. I haven’t exactly been feeling any romantic, or sexual for that case, feelings towards anyone. I don’t really know if that’s my thing.” Chloe nodded.  
“That’s cool. That might mean that you’re aromantic or asexual. In that case, we could be ace buddies!” Frank gave Chloe a thankful smile.

“I guess we could be.”   
Caleb spoke next.  
“I don’t know specifically what I am. Like, I think I like girls and maybe also guys but I don’t really know. I’m kind of still figuring it out.” He shifted in his seat nervously. Mark said  
“That’s alright buddy. It’s okay to not know.” Caleb nodded and smiled. Chloe noticed Adam looking at him with what was nearly a hopeful expression. Interesting. 

Sam said  
“Well I guess I’ll complete this by saying I have very little clue about all of this. I guess what Caleb said is basically what I feel. I think I like more than one gender but I just haven’t really thought much about it.” There were nods and a moment of silence. Then Joan said  
“So, is there anyone here who is heterosexual?” No one spoke. Then Mark laughed.

“I can’t believe we all managed to group together.” There were comfortable laughs from the group. Sam spoke again  
“So, The Greatest Showman anyone?” 

They all made it through that movie and seeing as everyone knew the words they all sung really loud. Chloe, not for the first time that night, was glad that Sam had discovered that Muffling Charm so that they wouldn’t wake up the whole house. Then, at Mark’s request, they put on The Philadelphia Story. It was during this movie that most of them fell asleep. Chloe did not, as she was full of too much energy from the nights excitement. She looked around the room and smiled as she noticed that Sam was sleeping on Mark’s unaware shoulder and that Caleb was sleeping on Adam’s. Unlike Mark, Adam was awake and was staring fondly at Caleb.

When he noticed that Chloe was looking at him he turned to her with a surprised and an almost guilty look. She smiled at him. She understood. He seemed to realize that she wasn’t judging him or anything and so he relaxed. Then he gestured with his head towards Rose. Chloe turned to look. Rose had fallen asleep as well. Chloe smiled at her. Rose always looked so nice when she slept. It was cute. She looked back up to Adam to see that he had a knowing look on his face. She frowned with confusion and tried to ignore the fact that she was blushing. 

The next morning everyone was very tired. Chloe had gotten roughly 5 hours of sleep but apparently after she and Adam had nodded off, Frank and Joan had a chat that went for a while and they were the most tired out of the bunch. Thankfully, it was Sunday, and therefore they did not have to do any important schoolwork. Everyone decided to retire to their dorms to relax, except for Joan, whom Chloe suspected was going to do study. That girl never stopped working. 

Chloe and Rose went back to their shared dorm room. They both lay on their beds in relaxation and peace. The Rose spoke  
“It feels like I’ve stepped into an alternate dimension. Like, nothing feels real.” Chloe laughed.  
“Tiredness will do that to you.” Rose hummed in agreement and then continued  
“That was really nice. I often forget just how fun it is to be with my friends and to just have fun with them.” Chloe agreed. Having close friends like that was awesome.

There was a long silence and then Chloe heard Rose’s breath start to slow and it became obvious that she was asleep. Chloe shook her head and smiled to herself. That girl really loved sleep. Chloe had always preferred being awake. As fun and as crazy as dreams were, Chloe liked being able to have some control over her actions rather than living in a haze. 

The year kept on going. The group wanted to have another sleepover but, as workload increased, it became clear that wouldn’t be possible. So, they just settled for relaxing at the lake on afternoons and going to watch Quidditch games whilst decked out in colours. As for the things they had discussed at the sleepover, they started off not really talking about them. Then they would start making casual comments. And then they would just have full on conversations about it. Mark made a habit of announcing his presence in a room by saying, ‘I’m here, I’m queer,’ and then a random variation of a rhyme. It was quite entertaining. 

Something that Chloe started noticing more regularly was the interactions between Mark and Sam, and Caleb and Adam. It was becoming increasingly obvious that Sam liked Mark, and that Adam liked Caleb. It was also becomingly increasingly, and painfully obvious, that Mark and Caleb had no idea about this. She had noticed on multiple occasions that Caleb or Mark would make a comment about dating someone and then either Adam or Sam would look away. 

When Chloe tried to take matters into her own hands, it did not work all that well. Upon approaching Adam about it she was met with a wall of denial and defensiveness.  
“What? Me? And Caleb? I don’t like him. I don’t know what you’re thinking but it’s not true. He’s my best friend. And speaking of liking people, what about you and Rose?” Chloe was quite confused by what Adam meant. Rose was her friend. She didn’t like her like that. 

When she tried to deny the charges and get Adam to talk she just got shut down.  
“Okay sure, Chloe. Whatever. I don't care and I want to stop talking about this.” When Adam left, he was bright red in the face and Chloe made a mental comment to not bring it up again.   
Because of this backfire Chloe decided that she wouldn’t bring it up with Sam. Adam would barely stay in the same room as her after that and she didn’t want to make Sam upset.

Until one day which brought all types of secrets and questions forth. Chloe was studying alone in the library. Mark and Caleb had Quidditch training. Rose was at a club of some sort, Chloe didn’t really know what, something to do with Potions, Frank was doing some painting alone, Joan was studying, and Sam was off somewhere doing something secret, which all meant that Chloe had decided to go and look over some History of Magic. 

She was just taking some notes on the founding of Josie’s Wands when Sam burst into the library. She walked over to Chloe’s table with an intense look on her face. There was a brightness in her eyes that Chloe knew only came from Sam finding new knowledge. Chloe started to ask Sam what it was but Sam interrupted.

“Chloe you need to come with me. I have been needing to tell someone about this for ages and now I’ve found something even bigger.” Without hesitation Chloe stood up and pulled her stuff into a pile.   
“Lead the way.”

Chloe was led through the castle to a corridor on the seventh floor. Then Sam began to pace back and forth. Chloe was understandably confused.   
“What are you-”  
“-There!” Sam shouted. Chloe startled. She wasn’t sure she had ever heard Sam shout. At least it wasn’t an angry shout. It was an enthused shout. 

Chloe looked at the wall and then had to do a double take. It wasn’t possible. Wait, no, that’s not right. Anything’s possible here. That or Chloe was starting to hallucinate vividly. Where there had once been a flat plain wall, there was a small wooden door. Sam looked back at Chloe excitedly. Chloe realised that her mouth was hanging open.   
“How did you do that?” Chloe asked. Sam beamed at her.

“I was just wandering back and forth on this corridor one day thinking that I really wished that I had a place to myself to study, the common room and the library were both full of people at the time, and then a door just showed up. And you won’t believe what’s inside.” Sam took Chloe’s arm again and pulled her through the door. 

Inside was a room about the size of a Hogwarts common room. There was a crackling fire, bookshelves that also had all sorts of objects on them, a single couch that looked big enough to fit two people, blankets, pillows, and a writing desk and chair. Chloe was amazed. How could something like this be hiding in Hogwarts? Sam had a very proud look on her face.

Chloe couldn’t stop staring around the room. The colouring of it reminded her of what the Ravenclaw common room looked like. Sam started speaking  
“Okay I know this is going to sound a little crazy but, I think this room manifested especially for me. And I have a reason for thinking that too. Believe me, I’ve come up with every theory I can to explain this place. But what happens every time I come here, is that it’s exactly what I need. The exact books I need are on the shelves. If I want a record player with music one day, it will be there. And even now it’s happened. The couch is bigger, it used to be only able to fit one person but now it can fit two.”

Chloe was only able to nod and look around, stupefied by the wonder of this room. So, this was where Sam had been sneaking off to. She turned to Sam.  
“Am I the only one you’ve told about this?” She asked. Sam nodded.  
“I’ve been trying to bring it up but I kind of liked having something that was just mine. But today I found something new.” Sam gestured to the shelves.   
“You see those objects on the shelves?” Chloe nodded. Sam bit her lip excitedly.

“Well I was checking them out, and most of them are strange but basic. Like chess pieces, jewellery, a broken watch. But today I found this.”  
Sam then held up what appeared to be a golden necklace with an hourglass in it. There was an inscription on the ring around the hourglass, but it was so small and intricate that Chloe couldn’t read it. Chloe didn’t know why but she felt like she recognised it.

“What is it?” She asked. Sam’s eyes were practically glowing.  
“It’s a Time Turner.”

Chloe’s eyes widened. Now she knew why she recognised it. They had learned about such objects in class before. Time Turners were enchanted with a charm so that the user could travel back in time. One of the features that had been built into it to protect the user and the past was that the user could not interact with anything when in past times. The Ministry of Magic used to use them to investigate crimes or gather information about people. Then they were all destroyed in a fire at the Ministry. Others had attempted to make Time Turners but none of them had really worked properly. 

“Is it, like, an actual one? Like from before they were all destroyed?” Chloe asked. Sam nodded.  
“How do you know?”  
“I tested it,” Sam answered. Chloe was shocked. Sam was never the one for reckless behaviour. That was always Mark. Sam was always the one getting dragged into trouble by him.   
Sam noticed Chloe’s surprised look and laughed.

“I know I don’t usually do reckless things like this but I just had to know. So, I travelled back one hour. And when I walked around the castle no one could see me. I couldn’t touch anything. And it was one-hundred percent an hour ago. It's the real thing.” Chloe gaped at the necklace.  
“Wow.”

Sam fiddled with it.   
“It kind of feels like it was meant to be mine, you know? Like I’m the one it was made for.” Chloe nodded.  
“I get that. Sometimes it feels like the universe is pushing you towards a certain fate. Like when you meet new people and it just feels like they are going to change your life. The question is, what are you going to do with it?” Sam shrugged.

“I don’t know. I guess it’s up to me to find out.”   
Sam smiled at the necklace.  
“I guess it’s my special superpower.” 

Chloe smiled at the ground. The idea of superpowers in a world with magic would sound laughable if she didn’t know it was true. If she hadn’t seen it. If she didn’t know about one fate that the universe would soon push her towards. If her mother was right. But of course, she was. She always was.

“Chloe? You kind of went really quiet. Is everything okay?” Chloe weighed several options in head in about two seconds. Then she came to a decision.  
“Sam? Can you…can you keep a secret?” Sam looked both concerned and taken aback.  
“Um, yeah sure.” Chloe bit her lip.

“Okay, this is going to sound a little crazy so I’ll do this slowly so it makes sense. Not to say that you won’t understand because you aren’t smart enough, you are smart, it’s just better if I explain.” Sam nodded slowly, a crease forming between her eyebrows. Chloe took a deep breath.

“Okay so, do you know about Legilimency?” Sam nodded.  
“Uh yeah, that’s mind reading right?” Chloe shifted in her head and tilted her head.  
“Well it’s a bit different but yeah, that’s the basic concept. What do you know about how people become Legilimens?” Sam shrugged.

“Well I know it takes years of practice to become good at it.” Chloe leaned forwards.  
“What if I told you that there are people out there who are born with the ability to be a Legilimens and that the ability to be one just lies dormant until the teen years?” Sam looked confused at first before understanding dawned on her.

“Wait, are you saying that you are one of these people? How do you know?” Chloe nodded.  
“I am saying that I am one of those people. The ability hasn’t manifested yet. I can feel it starting to though. Like very now and then I’ll get a strange buzzing noise in the back of my head. Usually when I’m in big groups. And I know this because my mother has a friend who works for the Department of Mysteries and he told her. He had some way of knowing.” 

Sam was quiet for a while, processing all the information.   
“Wow. Wow that’s…that’s quite the superpower Chloe.” When she spoke, Chloe could hear the interest in her voice but also a bit of fear. That made Chloe’s heart sink. She didn’t want people to be afraid of her. She tried to lighten the subject with a joke.

“Well it means that I’ll be able to find all your secrets. No more pretending that you don’t like Mark.”   
The moment the words left her mouth Chloe regretted them. Sam turned bright red, much like Adam had.

“Oh, I…I didn’t mean it! I’m sorry, I was just joking around, I don’t really…” Chloe trailed off not sure how to finish the sentence. Sam looked up at her with a slightly pained expression.  
“Am I really that obvious?” Chloe failed to hide a laugh.

“Yeah, yeah you kind of are. Don’t worry he hasn’t noticed yet. Mark is very oblivious.” Sam bit her lip and sighed.  
“That’s good at least.”   
There was an awkward pause. Then Chloe spoke.

“Sorry. I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.” Sam smiled at her sadly. That made Chloe feel even more guilty.   
“It’s okay. I kind of knew someone had to have noticed. I’m glad that it was you who talked to me about this first and not Joan.” Chloe thought about that situation and snorted.   
“Sorry, but that sounds hilarious. Can you imagine how awkward she would be about it?” Sam tried to stop herself smiling but failed terribly.  
“Yeah she would be. Joan hasn’t exactly got social skills down pat yet.” 

Chloe decided that lightening the mood was definitely the way to go. As long as she was careful about her words. Then she remembered something.  
“Oh my gosh! Do you remember when that boy, um what’s his name, Owen that’s it, when he asked her out?” Sam started full on laughing at that point.  
“That was a train wreck! I don’t think she even noticed that he was asking her out until after the conversation was over. I kind of feel sorry for him in a way.”

The two girls continued to bring up memories that brought them joy for the rest of their time in that room. Confessed secrets lay at their feet but in that moment neither of them wanted to acknowledge them. They were much better off laughing about the past then wondering about what trouble may lie in their future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that is the chapter. You can fight me on this, no one in The Bright Sessions, except maybe Agent Green, is straight. Don't worry, it's only a few chapters before most of the plot details I have been setting up start coming into play. I would once again like to thank everyone who has commented or left a kudos on this work. You keep me motivated. Please continue to leave comments and if you haven't left a kudos yet, please do that. Anyways, I will see you next week!


	12. Out of Sync

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so first of all I am super sorry for the late update. I had a week full of stuff and then I had a week where I was on holidays in a place that had no Wifi. I was going to update yesterday but Ao3 was down for me so, I guess I just have bad luck. But here it is now. It is about four and a half thousand words about Caleb and Adam being idiots so I hope you like it.  
> Enjoy!

Caleb was walking down a hallway, his bag over one shoulder, talking happily with Adam when someone called his name.   
“Caleb!” Caleb paused. It wasn’t a voice that he really recognised. It was a female voice but it definitely wasn’t Chloe or Sam. He stopped walking and turned. 

The owner of the voice was a Ravenclaw girl whom Caleb recognised, Caitlin, he thought her name was. She had a nervous smile on her face and she was awkwardly fiddling with her hands. He noticed Adam tense up next to him but put it down to Adam not liking conversations with strangers.

“Hey! It’s Caitlin, right?” He asked, hoping like hell that was her actual name. She blushed and her smile widened.  
“Yeah, yeah that’s me.” She did a little nervous throat clear, her foot shifting.

“Can I, can I speak to you privately for a moment?” Caleb was a little surprised. He had thought maybe she had wanted to ask a question about a lesson they had together or something. It seemed like that was not the case however.

Caleb turned to look at Adam. Adam had a perfect poker face on, the only way that Caleb could tell that he was hiding emotions was by the fact that his eyes had gone cold. Usually Adam’s eyes were a nice greenish colour with light and joy in them. Now they looked almost angry. Caleb wondered why. Adam gave Caleb a half-hearted smile.

“Go ahead Caleb.” Caleb hesitated for a moment but then decided to not be rude to Caitlin. He turned to her and said  
“Okay.” She beamed at him.  
Caitlin led the two of them into a mostly empty corridor. Caleb shrugged his bag up onto his shoulder, as it had started to slip.

“So, what’s up?” He asked. Catlin bit her lip and then started speaking in a rushed way, using her hands to gesture a lot.   
“Okay so, you know how there’s a Hogsmeade visit coming up?” Caleb nodded. He was very aware of it. They had only had one so far and that had been pretty awesome. Caitlin continued  
“Well, I was wondering if you would like to go with me? Like, on a date?” 

Caleb was lost for words. He had not seen this coming. He barely knew who Caitlin was. He knew that she had a best friend called Jessica, that she was incredibly intelligent, and that she was quite pretty. He supposed that she seemed nice. He knew other kids in his year would be going on dates. Why shouldn’t he go on one? His friends would understand. And why shouldn’t he see if he liked Caitlin like that?

“Okay, sure. Yeah, yeah, I would like that,” He told her with a smile. She beamed at him.  
“Great! So, I’ll meet you at the gate when it’s time to go?” He nodded.  
“Yeah, sounds good.” She smiled.  
“Cool.” She turned around and walked away. He did the same.

When Caleb came back to Adam he immediately noticed the faraway look in his eyes, the slump in his posture, and the way his fingers were fidgeting with the strap of his bag. Adam was upset. Caleb knew these tells. Of course, he knew them. He was Adam’s best friend. If Adam wasn’t okay Caleb wanted to be there to make him feel better.   
“Dude, you okay?” He asked. Adam looked up, surprised.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” He said, completely unconvincingly. Caleb gave him a concerned look.  
“Are you sure? You sound, well not okay.” Adam shook his head.  
“I’m fine Caleb.” He cleared his throat.

“So, what did Caitlin want to talk about?” He asked with a harshness underlying his words. Caleb decided to ignore it. Adam clearly didn’t want to talk about whatever it was that was bothering him right now. Caleb suddenly felt a little awkward telling Adam about his and Caitlin’s plans. He didn’t know why, probably because he felt like he was letting Adam down.

“Oh, um, she wanted to ask me out to go on a date with her to Hogsmeade.”   
Adam stiffened up.   
“Oh.” He was avoiding eye contact with Caleb now.  
“And what did you say?” Caleb bit his lip.  
“Well, I said yes.” Adam nodded. 

“Oh,” He said, somewhat blankly.   
Caleb started babbling apologies, trying to make Adam stop looking like his world was ending in front of him.  
“Look, it’s not that big a deal. I can cancel on her. I know I usually-”  
“-Do you want to go with her?” Adam was staring at Caleb hard. Caleb knew that he couldn’t lie here. Adam would see straight through him. Caleb fiddling with his pockets and looked down, trying to find a way around it.

“Well, I, I mean, it, I could,” Caleb sighed, frustrated. Adam nodded curtly.  
“You want to go on a date with her, go on a date with her. I don’t control your life Caleb.” Adam didn’t sound angry, he just sounded, dejected. Caleb didn’t know why Adam was being like this and he felt himself start to get irrationally angry. Adam was right. He did want to go out with Caitlin. Adam didn’t have a say in the matter. He shouldn’t be this upset. Caleb spent all day with Adam. As awesome as it was, he should be allowed to have some time, away right?

“Dude, why are you taking this so badly? It’s one date. There are going to be other Hogsmeade visits.” Adam turned his head away from Caleb and he didn’t reply.   
“Hey! Don’t ice me out! Why can’t you just deal with whatever it is and accept that maybe I want to spend some time with people other than you!” Adam turned to face Caleb. His expression was stony but his eyes showed hurt. Caleb felt a pang. He shouldn’t have said that. He didn't want to hurt Adam

“Dude I’m-”  
“I get it Caleb, I’ll leave you alone. You go with people ‘other than me’. I won’t clog up your time.” As Adam spoke his voice shook and Caleb knew he was holding back tears. Adam pushed past Caleb and stormed off down the corridor. Caleb wanted to apologise but he didn’t know what to say that would make Adam turn around. So, he watched Adam go with a sinking feeling in his chest.

Caleb walked into the Hufflepuff common room and collapsed on one of the couches. He dropped his head into his hands and groaned. Adam was mad at him and Caleb didn’t really know why or how to fix it. He knew it all stemmed from Caleb’s meeting with Caitlin but what he couldn’t figure out was why Adam was taking it so hard. At the thought of Adam’s hurt eyes and shaking voice Caleb groaned again. He hated seeing Adam hurt. 

“Well someone looks upset,” called a voice. Caleb looked up to see Chloe sitting in one of the armchairs holding a book in her hands and looking at him with a smile.   
“What’s wrong Caleb? You don’t often come in here at this time. Don’t you and Adam usually go down to the lake to study?” Caleb had to stop himself groaning again and instead settled for a forlorn look at the ground. 

Chloe shut her book and sat on the couch next to Caleb.  
“Okay, you are going to have to tell me what’s wrong. You can’t just expect me to know everything.” Caleb looked up at her with a pained smile.  
“Can’t you just read my mind?” He asked pitifully. To his surprise, a look of panic crossed Chloe’s face.  
“Read your mind? What, I, I can’t do that. That would be silly.” He gave her a confused look.

“I was joking.” She laughed awkwardly.  
“Yeah, I, I knew that.”  
Chloe cleared her throat.

“Anyways, back to the topic. Why are you so upset?” Caleb decided to put aside Chloe’s strange behaviour in favour of getting help.   
“Adam is mad at me and I don’t know why.” Chloe frowned.  
“Adam? Mad at you? I understand your confusion, I didn’t know that was possible. I thought you two were like, never separate or mad at each other.” Caleb shrugged and ran his hands through his hair.

“Well, I kind of know why, but I don’t know the specific why and the other why, you know?” Chloe stared at him blankly.   
“Nope.”  
Caleb decided that he would make more sense to Chloe if he started at the start.

“Okay so, I’m walking to the lake with Adam and we’re just chilling right? And then this girl from one of my classes shows up and she says hi to me. Then she asks if we can go talk in private. And Adam starts acting all weird. So I go talk to this girl, her name is Caitlin by the way, and she asks me out to Hogsmeade on a date and I’m like cool that sounds really nice. And then when I tell Adam I’m going on a date he just kind of shuts himself off from me and I’m trying to tell him that it’s just a date but he’s acting like a jerk, you know? So, I got kind of mad at him and I yelled at him, I was a bit stupid, and then he just sort of breaks and leaves.” Caleb slumped back in his seat.

“I have no idea what to do.” Chloe stared at Caleb as if she was trying her best to process the information, but there’s too much. She took a moment as if to think before answering.  
“Well, I think it’s safe to say that Adam doesn’t like the idea of you spending time with Caitlin and-”  
“-Yeah I know that! But like, why? Why is he being so moody over me spending time with this one girl?” Chloe sighed and bit her lip. Caleb could see in her face that she was holding something back.

“Do you know something Chloe?” Chloe shook her head.  
“No,” She said, unconvincingly. Caleb leant forwards, folding his arms.  
“What aren’t you telling me Chloe?” Chloe looked away from him and Caleb felt hurt that Chloe felt like she couldn’t trust him. And then angry. Why was no one telling him stuff? Why was everyone keeping things from him? Was there something wrong with him? Caleb growled.

“I’m not a little kid Chloe, don’t keep things from me. Whatever it is I can deal with it, I’m not afraid of whatever it is!” Chloe looked at him, surprised by his sudden outburst. Then she shook her head.  
“Listen Caleb, I’m not telling you this. Not because, I don’t think you could handle it or because I’m treating you like a child, but because it’s not my secret to tell.” She stood.  
“I’m sorry that you and Adam are fighting, but I’m sure that if you go to him and actually talk about the problem, things will sort themselves out. You guys are best friends. Don’t let that end because of one fight.” Then Chloe turned and walked up to her common room, leaving Caleb with many mixed feelings. 

Caleb didn’t follow Chloe’s advice. He didn’t talk to Adam. At first it was because Adam was kind of avoiding Caleb. Every time Caleb wanted to talk to Adam, the other boy would suddenly find a reason to leave and Caleb would miss his chance. Eventually, he got the message that Adam didn’t want to talk to him and decided that it was fine. If Adam didn’t want to sort things out it was his problem. Caleb didn’t care. He wasn’t the one who was overreacting here. If Adam wanted to talk, he could be the one to find Caleb. That was what he tried to tell himself but every time Adam avoided him it still felt like someone was squeezing his heart.

In the absence of Adam’s companionship, Caleb found himself spending more time practicing Quidditch, doing homework, and talking with Chloe or Mark. Chloe would spend time with him but Caleb kept feeling the presence of the secret she was keeping from him, maybe even the multiple secrets, how could he know, so that made their time spent together, rather awkward. Spending time with Mark was much better. They talked about random stuff and messed about and just had fun. Mark knew not to ask about Adam, so that was perfect.

Another thing that happened in the absence of Adam was that Caleb found himself talking to Caitlin more and more. She had a best friend called Jessica who was usually there, but Caleb noticed that she kept finding reasons to exit the conversation. So, Caleb and Caitlin would talk. And spending time with Caitlin was nice. She was funny, and smart, and kind, but she wasn’t Adam. And as their conversations went on, Caleb found himself thinking that a fair bit. But spending time with he was really nice and so Caleb really started looking forwards to their date. 

The morning of the Hogsmeade trip was warm. People were talking happily about what they were going to do at Hogsmeade, counting coins, and just generally being happy. Everyone else in Caleb’s group did have plans so Caleb didn’t feel too guilty about ditching them. Joan, Adam, and Sam were going to the bookshop, Mark was going with some guys from his photography club, and Rose, Chloe, and Frank were going to just walk around the town. 

Caleb hadn’t really inquired as to what Adam was doing but Chloe had mentioned it and Caleb had felt a pang when she had. They still hadn’t talked. Caleb knew he should have done something to reach out, but a mixture of pride and confusion stopped him from doing so. How could he fix something when he didn’t even know what the problem was?  
Caitlin walked up to him and smiled.

“Hey Caleb,” she said in a slightly bashful voice. Caleb smiled at her.  
“Hey Caitlin.” She laughed. She did have a nice laugh. And she definitely was pretty, long blonde hair, blue eyes, and all. A small voice in him wished that the person in front of him had dark messy hair and bright green eyes but he pushed that voice away.

“Ready to go?” He asked her. She smiled and nodded. He grinned.  
“Cool. So, where to?”

Much to Caleb’s joy, Caitlin did not take him to Madam Puddifoot’s. That place sort of had a reputation for being inhabited by lovesick idiots who apparently had no qualms about PDA and lots of it. Instead the two of them went to Honeyduke’s Candy Store. Caleb had to say that it was one of his favourite places in Hogsmeade. The bright colours, entrancing smells, and free samples made it feel so happy. It was quite tightly packed but Caleb didn’t mind. Lingering in the back of his head was the memory of Adam's face when they had visited for the first time. Caleb shoved that away and he and Caitlin bought many different candies and left.

They didn’t really talk all that much. Caleb knew that if he was with Adam then he would be halfway through some dorky conversation that Caleb would pretend to be annoyed by, but actually loved. But instead they just walked in a silence that was starting to feel awkward. Caleb cleared his throat.  
“So, um, do you want to go to The Three Broomsticks?” He asked. She nodded. And so, they walked over to the pub.

It was warm inside and there were many people, not just students, sitting around the tables. Caleb knew that Adam was at the bookstore right now but he still scanned the café for any sight of his best friend. His search warranted no friendly faces. Caitlin tugged at his sleeve.  
“I’ll go find a table, do you want to get some drinks?” Caleb nodded. 

“Uh, yeah, what do you want? Butterbeer?” Caitlin just nodded and then turned and left. Caleb picked up on the look on her face. She didn’t want to be here.  
That was stupid. Why would she ask him out if she wasn’t going to enjoy herself? And their conversations before then had been good. She wasn’t talking to him. What was he supposed to do? Was he really that bad company? Caleb frowned. He really seemed to be making people upset recently. What was wrong with him?

Once Caleb had collected the drinks, two Butterbeers, he turned to scan the café for where Caitlin had gone. He saw her blonde hair a fair bit back. As he walked over he saw that talking to Caitlin was two unfamiliar boys from Gryffindor. Caleb wasn’t sure what year they were but he immediately got a bad feeling from them. He increased his pace towards them, making sure not to spill the Butterbeer on patrons as he passed through.

When he got to the table he could clearly make out the two boys faces as well as Caitlin’s. The boys had smirks on their faces that could only be described as slimy. Caitlin had a look of discomfort on her face and seemed to be trying to shrink against the table. Caleb placed the drinks on the table and spoke.  
“Hey. What’s going on?” 

He winced inwardly at what a weak sounding conversation starter that was, especially if these guys were trouble. They both looked at Caleb like he was a challenge.  
“Who are you?” Asked the taller of the two boys. His hair was brown and formed what was sort of a mullet. His expression changed to disdain as he looked Caleb up and down.  
Caleb folded his arms.

“I’m Caleb.” He turned to Caitlin.  
“Are these friends of yours?” He asked, full well knowing that they weren’t. She gave him a mildly fearful look.  
“No, I was just standing here when they came up to me. I’ve never met them before.” Caleb nodded. He could hear the tremble in her voice and decided it was time to end this situation.

“I think you two should leave.”  
The taller boy stepped forwards.  
“It’s a free country. We’re not doing anything wrong are we?” There was a dangerous edge to his voice. Caleb stared him down.

“You might not be but I don’t really appreciate your company and I don’t think Caitlin does either.” Caitlin shook her head fervently. The tall boy sighed.  
“That’s a shame.” As he said this he laid his hand on Caitlin’s face. She tried to shift away but his hand followed her.  
Caleb grabbed the guy’s arm and pushed it away.

“Don’t touch her.” The boy glared at him with a glint in his eye. The second boy had a smirk on his face like he was enjoying this a lot. Caleb felt anger rising in him.   
“Why not? She’s only a Mudblood. Not anything impor-” Caleb cut him off with a fist to the face.

It took a moment to register what had just happened. Pain burst in Caleb’s hand. The guys wiped his nose and then punched Caleb right back. It hurt like hell. As Caleb staggered back he felt blood run down his face. Everything went red. Caleb only had one thought. Beat the living shit out of this guy. He felt pain in his fists, face, and chest. He could barely see anything. Around him everything was a blur of noise. 

He felt hands grabbing at him, trying to pull him back. Then he felt a cold sensation run through him and suddenly he couldn’t move. Caleb couldn’t really see anything. He felt himself rise up and realised that he had been petrified and was now being levitated. He felt a breeze hit him as he exited The Three Broomsticks. 

His sight came back but as he was floating parallel to the ground, he could only see a cloudy blue sky, light posts, and the very tops of stores. He hovered like the for-a while. During this time, he registered the pain in his hands, face, and abdomen. He didn’t think he had broken anything, but the bruising would be pretty bad. He wondered if there was something the Infirmary could do for bruises. He wouldn’t know. He hadn’t exactly gotten into many fights before.

The fight. Oh boy. He might have screwed up. He had just gotten into a physical fight in a public place, on a school excursion, right in front of the girl he was taking on a date. And while he was sort of defending her, it was still a bit of a jerk move. He felt bad. Caleb had never meant to make Caitlin feel bad. She was a nice girl and he had just been trying to give her a nice Hogsmeade trip. He wondered what Adam would think. 

Suddenly, he felt himself stop. Then he fell to the ground. When he picked himself off the floor he saw that the person that had been levitating him was Professor Steel, the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Caleb also saw that he was being levitated along with the tall boy he had gotten into the fight with. The second boy was nowhere to be seen. The tall boy also had a blood nose, Caleb noticed, much to his joy. He was glad that he had been able to get him back somewhat.  
Professor Steel glared at both of them.

“That was stupid. I mean really, fighting in a public area? You’re lucky that I visit the Three Broomsticks often. I’m going to take you to the Infirmary to get yourselves cleaned up. You can walk up. Then I’ll call over your Heads of House to see what punishment you get.” Then Professor Steel turned and began walking up to the castle. Caleb and the tall boy glared at each other before following him.

Neither of them had anything broken. When Professor Palmer showed up he just gave Caleb a disappointed look and two detentions. He saw the tall boy, who’s name was Kaine, get absolutely torn apart by Professor Sequoyah. Caleb tried to hide his smile when he heard that Kaine had a longer amount of detention than him. 

A while later, Caleb was walking around the clocktower area alone. He always went there to think. Caitlin had come to visit him before he left the Infirmary. They both agreed that they were going to break up, if they had ever really been together. They had shared a smile before going their separate ways. Caleb knew that all the Hogwarts students had come back a while ago. He had left to come up here to avoid questions. He knew that the story of the fight was probably doing its third loop of the castle by now and he didn’t really feel like re-enacting it. 

“So, I hear you got into a fight,” A voice called from down the corridor. Caleb’s heart leapt about five stories. Adam. Caleb didn’t turn to look but his entire body tensed. It felt like electricity was running through his body. Caleb brought his mind back to Earth and replied

“Yeah.” Simple. Too simple. Too little. Adam was here. Adam was talking to him. He needed to reach out or Adam would leave him forever.  
“I’m sorry.” Caleb wasn’t sure he had heard right. He finally turned to face Adam. His hair was messier than usual. His green eyes glinted and he had a melancholy expression on his face. Caleb shook his head.

“It’s not your fau-”  
“-Yes, it is. I overreacted and I ignored you. I shouldn’t have done that. It wasn’t a big enough thing to lose you over.” Adam’s eyes flicked to Caleb’s. A buzz shot through him.  
Caleb took a step towards Adam.

“And I’m sorry. I should have reached out. I should have talked to you. I shouldn’t have said those things.” Adam smiled at him softly.  
“It’s alright. I know you didn’t mean them.” Adam took a step towards Caleb.

“But thank you for apologising.” Caleb nodded. The two boys stared at each other. They were only about two metres away from the other but it felt like a chasm.   
“So, and I’m not asking this to be petty but, how was the Hogsmeade trip?” Caleb laughed.  
“It’s seems you’ve already heard the story.” 

“I know, but, I want to hear it from you. Apparently, you got into a badass fight.” Caleb felt a grin creep up his face.  
“It was pretty badass.” Adam walked over to Caleb, closing the gap.  
“Then why don’t we go sit over there and you can tell me all about it.” 

They sat down in a small alcove overlooking the courtyard. Caleb’s feet were pressed up to Adam’s but he didn’t mind. In fact, he felt happy that he was this close to Adam again. Adam nudged Caleb.

“So, what’s the story?” Caleb smiled at Adam. Adam looked away self-consciously. Caleb started talking.  
“Okay so I’m out with Caitlin and this dude came up to her in the Three Broomsticks. And he’s being a dick so I told him to get away from her. He continued to be a dick so I got pissed and punched him. Like, he called her a mudbl-well, a bad word.” Adam giggled, actually giggled. Caleb’s stomach backflipped. What the hell? Since when did that happen?

“I’ve missed you meathead.” Adam told Caleb. Caleb snorted and tried to hide the burst of joy he felt when he heard that nickname.  
“Dork.” Adam smiled and Caleb’s stomach twisted. What was with that?

“Anyways, Professor Steel broke up the fight and took us back to the castle. I got off with some detentions. The other guy, I think his name was Kaine, got something way worse. He deserved it.” Adam nodded.  
“I’m sure he did.” 

Caleb stretched his hands over his head.  
“Man, I am hungry.” Adam giggled again. He didn’t even seem to notice how adorable he sounded. Adorable? Since when did he use that to describe Adam? Like, Adam is adorable, but when did Caleb start noticing that? 

“Come on meathead, let’s go to the Great Hall. Dinner will be starting soon.” Adam stood and so did Caleb. Adam grinned at Caleb and then touched his arm.  
“I’m glad we’re talking again meathead. I’d missed you.” Caleb grinned back.  
“I’d missed you too dork. We’re never doing that again.” Adam nodded.  
“Agreed.”

Adam moved his hand away and Caleb was surprised to find that he missed the contact. Adam turned and started walking in the direction of the Great Hall. Caleb took a moment to pause. What was up with him? Butterflies in his stomach, thinking Adam was adorable, wanting to be close to Adam at all times. Caleb shook his head. It was just because they had been separated for so long. 

But as Caleb started following Adam, his mind started searching back. Memories of joy every time he saw Adam. The way how he had wished Caitlin was Adam. How Caleb would go out of his way to talk to and spend time with Adam. And he started remembering other times his stomach had flipped. During Quidditch games when he saw Adam smiling at him from the stands. When Adam had hugged him after winning a game. When Adam did a spell well and was just smiling at the effects. When Adam smiled or laughed. What did this mean? He didn’t really know what to make of this. 

He was at the dining table when he figured it out. Everyone was talking and laughing. Caleb had recounted his story long ago, and now they were just rambling on comfortably. Adam was pressed against Caleb’s side, and now Caleb was paying attention, he noticed the buzz from where they touched. He noticed the way his heart felt like it was bursting every time Adam smiled, or made a joke, or nudged Caleb, or breathed, or did anything. And then Adam met Caleb’s eyes and they were both laughing and Caleb could barely breathe. And suddenly he knew what this was. 

Oh.

Oh shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is totally canon that Caleb is this oblivious. Don't worry, they'll figure things out soon enough. I have no idea when the next update will be but just know that there will be another one. And while you're waiting for that, maybe leave a comment below, it absolutely brightens my day so much when I see that someone took the time to say something. But this is where I leave you, the next chapter will be set in their next year at Hogwarts and it will be from Sam's perspective. Farewell!


	13. Don't Be Foolish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Year 5 for Sam.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I am back. I now there probably aren't many people reading this and I'm pretty much just shouting into the void, but to the few who are still here, thanks. It means so much to me. However, I do return with an angsty chapter about Sam. I would buckle up your seatbelts, this is a little heavy. I don't think there is anything too triggering in here but maybe watch out a little.   
> Enjoy!

Everything hurt. Buying items at Diagon Alley hurt. Walking across the platform hurt. Seeing the shining Hogwarts Express with steam billowing out of it hurt. How could this still all exist? How could a world with magic exist? Sam’s fingers slipped to her neck, to where that stupid, useless, golden necklace hung. It felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. 

She tried to will back tears as she looked around the platform, around the crowd. She could already hear the happy voices of her friends as they asked her why halfway through the summer her letters had stopped. She could already hear the mumbled excuses she would offer. 

She could see the concern that would arise in the eyes of Chloe and Joan. They were the type of people who just knew. Caleb, Adam, and Rose would probably be too oblivious to notice, and Frank would know something was up, but he wouldn’t say anything. As for Mark, she didn’t know. His unpredictability made him such an impossible thing. Would he notice? If he did, would he say anything? She didn’t know how she wanted him to react.

“Sam!” It was Joan who was calling from the crowd. Sam turned and smiled despite herself. It really had been too long since she had seen her friends. Joan was striding towards her in her pristine Slytherin robes. She looked great. Her glasses looked different, she must have gotten a new pair. Then Sam’s gaze slid to Mark and her heart skipped a beat.

She hated it. How she had fallen for someone who was so perfect, so unattainable. He was Mark Bryant, top of every class, practical expert, best Chaser ever, friend to everyone. She was Samantha Barnes, wishing she could be the top of every class, barely able to perform basic spells, terrible at sport, ignored by everyone. Why did it have to be his smile, his bad jokes, his presence that made her feel like this? It was foolish.

Then she saw the badge on his robes, his rumpled Hufflepuff robes that looked like he had just pulled them out of the bottom of a cupboard. There it was, shining happily. A Prefect badge. She felt a tightness in her chest. Of course, he was a Prefect. The teachers loved him. He was just that amazing. She wouldn’t begrudge him that honour except for one small detail. She hadn’t gotten one.

They had always known Mark would be a Prefect. But when he was talking about late night patrols and getting privileges, she was always included in the picture. They were going to patrol together, dock points together. And that fact always made her feel warm, made her feel special, that he wanted her by his side. But now those dreams died. And it was stupid, it was just a badge, but it still stung. It still hurt that no matter how hard she tried, everything remained out of her grasp.

Joan and Mark walked up to her. Sam tried to ignore the shine in Mark’s eyes, the proudness in Joan’s face.   
“Hello Sam, it’s been a while.” But as Joan was speaking, Mark crushed Sam with a hug. Her stomach filled with butterflies. Why did his every touch have to set her on fire?

“Sam! I’ve missed you so much!” Sam thought about shrugging off the hug. But every moment with Mark was to be treasured. She gripped him hard and tried to ignore the voice in her head that told her this wouldn’t last. 

“Why did you stop sending letters? I missed you.” Sam heard the underlying ‘I was worried about you’, and her heart ached.  
“Don’t worry about it. I was just really busy and it slipped my mind.” She silently thanked her voice for not shaking as she lied to her best friend’s face. Mark accepted the lie, but Sam saw Joan narrowing her eyes. Sam screamed inwardly. That was definitely going to be brought up.

“Come on, we’d better find a carriage,” Sam said, desperately trying to change the subject. Mark nodded enthusiastically.   
“Yeah, but I will be leaving the carriage early because,” he flashed his badge at her with a grin. She forced a smile onto her face.  
“Wow Mark, I’m so proud of you.” He beamed. 

“Did you get one too?” He asked. Pain. Why did Mark have to be so oblivious? Why couldn’t he just know?   
Sam saw Joan’s face. Joan knew. Joan saw that Sam hadn’t got one. Joan knew that Sam was hurt. Joan didn’t say anything.   
“Oh, I uh didn’t.” Mark’s face fell. He looked confused. Wasn’t it easy to understand? She wasn’t good enough. Again.

“Sam, I’m, I’m so sorry. I don’t know how you didn’t get one.” Sam shrugged, trying to play it cool like it didn’t matter.  
“It’s alright, guess they just, thought someone else could do a better job than me.”  
Mark’s eyes were full of pity now. She hated it. She didn’t want him to pity her. 

“Come on. The train will be leaving soon,” she said, turning away so that the Bryant siblings couldn’t see the tears welling up in her eyes. She pushed her way through the crowd and on to the train, not once looking back. 

There friends were already in the compartment. Adam and Caleb were sitting together talking to Rose and Chloe. Sam noticed that Adam and Caleb were very subtly holding hands. She wondered if they had finally gotten together. She decided not to bring it up. Causing awkwardness between them on the first day of school was something that Sam did not want to do. 

Everyone smiled and greeted them happily when they entered. Sam avoided their gazes. She didn’t deserve to be smiled at like that, greeted with such joy, such love. If only they knew what she had done. Mark sat down next to her on the edge of the compartment. Ready to leave, Sam thought sadly. She noticed that Frank was also wearing a Prefect badge. Of course. Frank was always going to get one. Sam realised that she was the only one in their group in their year who didn’t have a badge. Great. Just great.

The train started up and eventually conversations turned from discussions of what happened on the holidays, which Sam stayed out of entirely, to conversations about the upcoming school year. Then, after Mark finished talking about why he loved Transfiguration the most, he and Frank informed them that they should leave. Sam knew they had been stretching their allowances of time out of the Prefects carriage by being there, and she felt strangely touched. 

Without Mark in the carriage, it felt like there was a hole. Sam talked to Joan, who was clearly feeling the loss of the two other people she was closest with in this group, but it wasn’t the same as talking to Mark. Joan was way more sarcastic and talked about the more technical things, whereas Mark would make dumb jokes until someone laughed. Every time that happened Mark would consider it a personal victory. He would always do a little dance, making it as embarrassing as possible. Mark was so stupid sometimes. 

Sam noticed about halfway through the journey that Chloe was giving her a weird look. Not only that but she looked like she was waiting for something. It was worrying. Then Chloe spoke.

“Hey guys. So, I know not all of our group is here but, I have something to tell you.” Everyone turned to Chloe, their interests peaked. Sam noticed that Rose seemed to not be super interested in what Chloe was about to say but interested to see how the rest of them would react.  
“So, you know how some people are Legilimens?” Sam felt her heart stop. That seemed to be happening a lot recently. 

But Sam remembered having this conversation with Chloe last year. She remembered the fear she had felt at the idea of someone knowing everything. And now with this new secret. Oh shit, she shouldn’t think about that, Chloe would hear her. What if Chloe had already heard her? Oh god, what if she knew everything? Sam felt herself start to panic. She unconsciously felt for the Time Turner around her neck. Deep breathes Sam. You can’t disappear again. Don't spin back. 

Sam realised that she had just tuned out of the conversation so she decided to tune back in. Caleb was asking Chloe a question.  
“Wait, so can you like, hear our thoughts right now?” Chloe, to Sam’s relief, shook her head.  
“The power is still developing. I’m getting blurs and colours and stuff. It’s all really fuzzy.” That was good. Sam would have time to maybe prepare herself for hiding secrets from Chloe. 

Sam noticed that Joan also had an apprehensive look on her face. Not surprising, she was a very private person. The idea of someone being able to read her mind would be terrifying. Caleb and Adam were both avoiding each other’s gaze now. So, not together, but they definitely liked each other. Sam had to try hard to repress a smile. Those boys were so stupid about their feelings for each other. 

Sam wondered what Mark would think about Chloe’s power. He would probably think it was cool, being the nerd he was. She wondered if he was happy being with all the other prefects. He was probably having the time of his life, being with people who were as awesome as he was. He probably wasn’t even missing them, missing her. Not the way she was missing him.

The Sorting Ceremony passed in a blur but the Great Feast was probably the worst it had ever been. Just her alone with her thoughts. She didn’t even bother looking up to see if she could spot her friends. When she got to her dormitory, she lay awake the whole night, tossing and turning, thinking about everything. She had OWL’s this year. How the hell was she supposed to do well in them being the mess she was now. The next morning, she told her friends that she was too excited to sleep. She saw the looks they threw each other. They didn’t believe her. 

A few weeks passed where she was able to hide her feelings from her friends. If she was tired, she told them she had been up late reading. If she was quiet, she told them she was lost in her thoughts. If she forgot about an assignment or got a bad grade she just told them that it was fine, she’d do better next time. She noticed the looks they threw each other getting more and more concerned. 

Then Chloe’s powers came into full effect. Chloe didn’t tell them but she didn’t have to. Caleb was telling them a story and Chloe started telling it long with him. Everyone stared at her for a moment before Adam broke the silence.  
“You can do it, can’t you?” Chloe had blushed and nodded sheepishly. And if Sam started avoiding conversations with Chloe after that announcement, it was purely by coincidence.

But Sam couldn’t avoid Chloe at all times. And when she was with Chloe she couldn’t always hide her thoughts. It happened on the morning of the first Hogsmeade trip. Sam had been at the table, almost excited about the trip when Chloe had sat down at the table. And Sam couldn’t help that she thought of the incident immediately. She closed her eyes and tried to push it all away.

When she opened her eyes, Chloe was staring at her with a shocked expression on her face. Then surprise was followed by sorrow. Chloe knew. Sam saw her try to form a sentence, try to say something. Sam abruptly stood up and left. She went to her room and hid there, trying desperately to feel better. When Mark came to ask if she was okay and if she wanted to talk about it. She told him she was feeling sick and that no, she didn’t think she would be able to go to Hogsmeade, and no, she didn’t want to talk about it.

She spent the rest of the day lying on her bed in tears, wondering if it would be better if she just disappeared. 

Sam yells at Joan because Joan is trying to talk to her  
“Sam, I think we need to talk.” Sam felt panic run up her spine. It was a cold afternoon and the last thing Sam wanted was to be having a conversation with Joan. She had been doing well ignoring this. She couldn’t do this. 

“Sorry, Joan not now, I have-”  
“Howework? Sam, you have used that excuse so many times to avoid us recently that I don’t think you will have any homework left for the rest of the year.” Shit. So, they were finally doing something.

Sam tried deflecting.  
“You know that that isn’t possible.”  
“Sam, that’s not the point and you know it. You’ve been avoiding all of us, especially Chloe.” Sam shook her head and started walking away, trying to ignore the guilty sickness in her stomach at the mention of Chloe. She hated that she had to ignore the girl that she had used to be good friends with. 

“I haven’t,” Sam said, trying to force some conviction into the words but she knew it wasn’t working. She didn’t think there was a way to lie out of this.   
Joan walked quicker than Sam and stopped in front of her.

“Sam, please. We’re worried about you.” Sam looked away from Joan, avoiding her gaze.  
“Then why pick you to talk to me? Why not get Mark or Chloe to do it?” Joan sighed.  
“Mark thinks you just need space and Chloe doesn’t want to make you uncomfortable.” Joan tried to make eye contact with Sam.

“We’re friends Sam. You can talk to me.” Sam felt her heart rate increasing, the panic spreading through her body. She couldn’t. She couldn’t talk about this. Not now. Not here. She shook her head emphatically.   
“I can’t.” Joan reached out her hand.

“Why not?” Sam shook her head, trying to force tears and images of that day back.   
“I, I, I can’t do this. I’m sorry I need to go.” Sam pushed away from Joan.   
“Sam! You can’t just run away from this!” Sam spun around, now angry. Why couldn’t Joan just leave her alone?  
“Yes, I can, just let me be!”  
“Sam, this isn’t healthy. Let us be here for you. Please, tell me why you've been so distant recently. Tell us why you weren't sending letters. You don't just forget.” Sam shook her head.

“Maybe I do! I can't tell you! Why can't you just get that? Why can't you just understand that the reason that I'm not talking to you, is because I don't want to. Just leave me alone Joan!” Sam forced back the tears and left.

As soon as she was in her room she pulled off her Time Turner and threw it against the wall. Nothing happened. She wanted to scream, to claw off her skin, to travel so far back in time that she would never make her way back. But all she could do was sit on her bed and think about everything bad in her life was her fault. 

Sam stopped coming to meal times. The house elves liked her so she just went to them for food. She spent most of her days in the Room of Requirement, telling it not to let anyone in. She had figured out that it could do that. No one really tried to talk to her anymore. Chloe had got the message that Sam didn’t want to talk so she stayed away, Caleb and Adam spent all their time together now that they were dating, and Sam and Joan’s relationship had really taken a hit after Sam’s outburst. And Mark, well, Mark usually just sat with her, talking about meaningless things. It was nice that she hadn’t lost him but it felt like there was a steadily widening gap between them. 

Surprisingly, the other person she found herself spending time with was Frank. They had started up a wizard chess tournament which Sam found it easy to lose herself in. Frank understood that Sam didn’t want to talk and he was okay with that. So often, it would just be Sam, Mark, and Frank, sitting in the Gryffindor common room playing chess and laughing at each other until Mark and Sam were kicked out. It was nice. But the hurt was still there and despite all of that, Sam was getting worse.

Her grades were dropping, she barely got any sleep anymore, and the amount of people who looked at her like she was crazy made her feel like a ghost. She felt like an outcast in the one place she could still call home. The chess sessions in the Gryffindor common room slowed and then ceased entirely as Sam locked herself away in the Room of Requirement. She told herself that she didn’t deserve it. Not after what she did. 

The one day as Sam was sitting in the Room of Requirement, reading through a history book, alone and broken, she heard a pounding on the wall. She looked up.   
“Sam! I know you’re in there, Chloe told me about this place!” Sam stared at the wall blankly. Well, it was bound to happen. At least it wasn’t Chloe herself. Sam didn’t know if she could talk to her anymore.

“Sam, let me in please! It’s Mark and I just want to talk. I miss you!” Sam tried to ignore his shouts. Tried to ignore the sway that Mark had over her. Even after shutting him out and trying to ignore him, her feelings still remained. Great. 

“Sam, please. I know you want space, but half a year is far too much. I want my best friend back.”   
It was too much. Sam stood and walked over to where Mark was banging on the wall. She let the door appear. It swung open and there he was. Before Sam could say anything, he hugged her.

“I’m sorry, I know you don’t like being hugged but I just needed to.” Sam didn’t even try to push him away. She just hugged him back fiercely.   
“I’ve missed you too Mark.”   
He let go and smiled at her.

“Can we talk?” She nodded and gestured for him to follow her. She told the Room to close off its entrance after he was in. Then the two of them sat on the couch. He smiled at her.  
“So, how’s school been?” Sam nearly laughed at how nonchalantly he asked the question. 

“We both know that you’re not here to ask me about how I’ve been failing fifth year and how I’m going to flunk my OWL’s.” He laughed hesitantly.  
“Okay, fair point.” He looked at her. 

“Sam please, you can talk to me about this. I know something has been bothering you ever since the holidays and I just,” he looked at her, “you don’t need to struggle alone.” She looked at him, her eyes shining with tears, her heart bursting with emotion, and she broke. How could she have expected to hold out? She wasn't a superhero. She was just a broken girl who was sick of being alone. 

“Okay. Okay. But please Mark, don’t tell anyone else. Please.” She begged him. He smiled comfortingly and nodded. Sam swallowed back tears and began her story. 

“Over the holidays, my parents wanted to teach my how to drive. I’m of age for it now, just like you I guess. So, I agreed to do it. It started out just me in my dad’s old car in a parking lot. But it was terrifying. I hated being behind the wheel, it just freaked me out. I didn’t want any part of it. But my parents were so insistent and I, I didn’t want to disappoint them, I couldn’t, so I, so I kept trying.

“One day my parents decided that I should do some driving around the ‘real world’. I really didn’t want to do it, I mean, what if I crashed, what if I-I hurt somebody?” Sam paused to catch her breath. Mark took her hand. 

“You’re doing great Sam.” She gave him a weak smile and continued.  
“My parents decided that if they came with me, I-I might be calmer about it. But It just made me worry more, because what if I hurt them as well. And I kept thinking about how unsafe it was and how it was such a bad idea and how there were so many cars, and I was freaking out I just, I just couldn’t do it. And my parents were trying to get me to calm down, they were telling me that it was okay. And I-” Sam paused, swallowed, and then with shaking hands pulled the Time Turner out.

“I found this last year, and I’ve been wearing it ever since. And I was sitting in that car, panicking, my mind completely blank, and on instinct I just grabbed this and spun it back.” She gasped. Mark’s eyes filled with understanding and sorrow.  
“Sam…” She started crying again.

“I went and I hid and when I got back to the right time I wasn’t in the car and my parents, they were killed. They were killed because I couldn’t handle a little bit of stress. And this stupid Time Turner can’t do anything about it. I can’t interact with anything in the past and so when I went back to try and fix things, I just had to watch everything again.” Sam stood up, hatred and disgust in her eyes.

“And I didn’t want anyone to know. I didn’t want anyone to avoid my gaze because they knew what I had done. And so, I shut myself off. And when Chloe found out I ran and stopped talking to her, even though it’s not her fault that she can hear what I’m thinking. And I yelled at Joan for trying to help and I pushed you all away and I’ve probably broken all my friendships. It’s my fault. It’s always my fault.”

She expected Mark to leap off the couch walk away from her, leaving her alone, making her nothing but a ghost walking the halls of the castle. But instead, he drew her into a hug, and held her as her tears started to fall rapidly. 

“I’ve got you Sam. Don’t worry.” Once she had cried out everything and she had noticed that Mark was still there, she pulled away slowly.  
“I’m-”  
“-Don’t say that you’re sorry. You don’t have to be. And Sam,” He placed his hand on her chin and tilted it up so that they were looking into each other’s eyes.

“Our friends aren’t going to hate you. They won’t blame you. They are going to care for you. And don’t believe for a second that you don’t deserve that because believe me, you do. You deserve the world Sam.” She smiled at him and when she saw the care in his eyes, the acceptance, for the first time in weeks, she actually believed that. And it had been so long. Maybe it was time to stop being a ghost, as foolish as opening herself up was.

It was a slow process back to normal. It started off with Sam coming to meal times with the others. She sat next to Mark and didn’t make eye contact or any attempt at speech, but she was there, and they all understood the importance of that. She started taking notes in class and actually making attempts at getting good grades, instead of just giving up. When she got her first Outstanding back on an assignment her heart nearly burst.

Sam started talking to the others in their group. She started with Frank, who was calm and he understood. She even told him quietly during one chess game that her parents were dead. He had paused and then nodded and continued on. It felt so genuine and it gave Sam courage. 

She apologised to Joan and was met with a smile and understanding.  
“I think you’re going through something tough. I don’t know what, but when you’re ready, I’ll be here with the rest of our friends to help you.” The two returned to having study sessions. Sam’s grade really started to pick up, she was a good student after all, and when she started freaking out about OWL’s, Joan was there to tell her how to handle it. 

The other person she needed to apologise to was Chloe. Sam found her one afternoon when she was alone in the Great Hall doing work. Sam slid into the seat next to her and Chloe looked up at her with surprise.

“Hi?” She said, as if she was confused to see Sam there, and considering how Sam had treated her those past few weeks, months even, it made sense.   
“I’m sorry. It’s not your fault that you can hear what I’m thinking and I should have known that you wouldn’t care. I shouldn’t have avoided you. I’ve been a terrible friend.” Chloe had stared at her for a second before hugging her tightly.

“Don’t worry Sam. I don’t blame you. And what happened to you, well, if you ever want to talk I’m here. And I know that you probably don’t want to talk about it, and that’s okay, don’t feel guilty about it, I get it. Really, it’s not your fault, I get that I’ve been hard to be around recently and, oh.” Chloe had looked down nervously.  
“Sorry, I’m still getting used to this whole thing. And I haven’t really talked to anyone recently.”

After that Sam started spending way more time with Chloe. The two talked a lot, and while Chloe did occasionally tend to monopolize the conversations, it was really nice having what had been pretty much been one of her best friends back. They didn’t talk about Sam’s parents but they didn’t need to and Sam was glad. Instead they talked about how cute Caleb and Adam were together, or how Sam, Mark, and Frank were all struggling with OWL’s. At one point the topic of Rose’s girlfriend Emily came up but Chloe acted a bit strange when they talked about that so Sam didn’t push. She knew what it was like having secrets.

As for Mark, well, every moment the spent together Sam felt herself getting sucked back into his orbit. She didn't even try to stop it though. She let the butterflies rise up every time he smiled at her. She let herself feel happy. And she told herself that it didn't matter that he would never feel the same. If being his friend made her feel like this, being his friend would be fine.

When OWL’s did come around, they were every bit as stressful as Sam had anticipated. Several times, as a coping mechanism, she would travel back an hour or two before they happened, just to relax for a bit and stop freaking out. No one noticed and it wasn’t exactly like Sam was cheating so she just did that. At the end, her, Mark, and Frank went down to the lake to relax and just bask in the knowledge that it was over.

Then school began ending far too quickly. As Sam was sitting at breakfast one day she reflected over how much she had changed over the year. Now she was back to talking to all her friends, her and Mark were so much closer that it nearly gave Sam hope, she was actually getting some sleep before nightmares kicked in, and she had a place to go. 

Joan had talked her into going to the Headmaster and asking about getting a place to stay. It ended up being wrangled that Sam could stay at Chloe’s house over the summer as Chloe’s mother was registered with the government or something. That would be the arrangement until Sam was legally an adult at which stage she would be given her parents house, as stated in their will. 

As happy as things were though, Sam was feeling worried for some reason. She started noticing little things happening around the castle, and especially with her friends. Caleb had definitely been dealing with some anger issues, Chloe was acting distant, as well as Rose, Joan had been spending a lot of time with Wadsworth recently, and Mark had been acting edgy.

When she asked Mark about it he told her that he was getting worried about Wadsworth and Damien. Mark and Wadsworth had never got along well and recently he had been noticing her staring at him somewhat maliciously. 

“I mean, I don’t know if she could be dangerous but I know she likes The AM. It’s really freaking me out.”  
As for Damien, Mark confessed that Damien had approached him recently and had asked him out. Mark hadn’t really been surprised by this, he knew as well as everyone that Damien was obsessed with him. When Mark had turned him down, Damien had almost refused Mark’s denial. Then he had stormed off but he still kept watching Mark at most times with a strange look in his eye. Sam assured Mark that Damien wasn’t dangerous but all of this worried her.

As she sat in the carriage with her friends playing magical card games, she felt a strange feeling in the air. Joan's smile felt fake. Chloe and Rose had barely said a word to each other. Frank was avoiding everyones gaze. Whatever was going on it felt like the next year was going to be a lifechanging one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's the chapter. Sorry for the erratic uploads, it's because of who I am as a person. If you have any thoughts about the chapter, please leave them below in a comment! Like I have said before, it makes my day. The next upload will be about Chloe's time during her 4th year. Basically, the same year you just saw, but through Chloe's eyes. And believe me, there's a lot that Sam isn't seeing. Farewell for now!


	14. How Bittersweet Dreams Can Be

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After nearly a month I return. This chapter is pretty long so hopefully it's worth it. Also about halfway through the chapter the thoughts that Chloe is hearing change from being in italics to being in brackets because Ao3 just stopped cooperating.  
> Enjoy!

Walking through Platform 9 ¾ with telepathic powers just starting up was a lot louder than Chloe was expecting. Her mother had said that once the buzzing started it would take a good three weeks to actually get to the stage where she could hear thoughts, but she had not mentioned the way that the buzz got louder when she was around lots of people.  
She couldn’t make out any specific words, obviously, but she could get some emotions. Mostly just excitement and nerves. Chloe sighed and rubbed her temples. She couldn’t wait until her power got to the stage where it didn’t hurt to hear these things. 

She wondered how her friends would react. Sam already knew, but her reaction hadn’t inspired much confidence in Chloe. Sam had kind of freaked out, and ever since Chloe had told her, she’d been acting weird. The other person who knew was Rose. How could Chloe be getting superpowers, and not immediately think of telling her best friend. Rose had reacted well. She thought it was cool. Chloe just hoped her other friends would think that as well. 

Once she was in the train carriage with her friends she couldn’t help the temptation to try and focus on her friends’ thoughts. Just once before they knew. And wasn’t like she’d get much anyways. So, she scanned the room with her mind, trying to focus in on the buzzes coming from them. 

Caleb’s thoughts seemed light, giddy almost. Adam’s were strange, like a window of light tinted around the edges with darkness. Happy, but also sad. Mark was hard to get, his were just really loud. She tried to turn her focus away from him. Frank’s thoughts were warm, comforting. Joan’s felt warm as well, but there was a coldness hanging around the edges. Rose’s thoughts felt nice. Like Chloe was meant to be reading them. And then she turned her attention to Sam.

Sam’s thoughts were fast and they left Chloe feeling a pain in her chest. Whatever was going on in Sam’s head, it wasn’t nice. Sam looked up and met Chloe’s eyes. Sam obviously saw the concern in Chloe’s face and in response an expression of almost…fear covered Sam’s face. Chloe looked away and tried to shake the feeling. She’d better tell them. They did after all, deserve to know. 

For the next few weeks at school, Chloe struggled with her growing power. The buzzing was getting really loud and she could start to make out snatches of conversation. During class time it was really bad. More than once she had had to be taken out of class to go to the Infirmary to get a Calming Potion. The school had been informed by her mother of what she was going through and like with most things, they took it in their stride. 

The first morning it came into full effect, Chloe noticed immediately. The buzzing was much fainter and when Rose’s thoughts entered her mind, they were as crisp and clear and water. _Ugh another day of school. What do I have today? Double Potions, oh wait that’s good. Wait, did I have homework to do? Oh, please tell me I didn’t have homework to do. Chloe will know. She’s good at remembering these things._

When Rose spoke, Chloe was startled.  
“What?” She asked, too enthralled in the new experience to hear.  
“I asked if we have homework.” Chloe shook her head.

“No, but we’ll be getting it today.” Rose groaned. _Homework sucks. I mean at least I’m good at Potions but still ugh. I hope it’s just an essay. That way I can at least help Chloe out. Man, she is terrible at Potions._ Chloe felt a burst of indignation.

“Hey, I am not that bad at Potions.” Rose went to banter back before hesitating.  
“You are bad but how did you-” She froze suddenly and her eyes widened. _Oh shit. Chloe must have her power now. Wait can she hear me now?_  
“Yes.” Chloe stated simply. Rose looked at Chloe with an expression of both awe and worry. Chloe remembered why she had been scared about her power starting.

She tried to control it at breakfast, she really did, but everyone’s thoughts were just so clear and so loud, and when Caleb started telling his story and she could hear every detail, well, she had always loved telling stories so was she really to blame for joining in? 

She thought the worst part would be everyone’s faces changing when they realised that she could hear them. The worst part was hearing their thoughts changing. Caleb thinking _oh shit she can hear me. Can she hear everything, like my Adam thoughts? God, that would be so embarrassing. Wait shit, is she listening now? Fuck, fuck, fuck, shit, shit, shit._  
Adam was thinking pretty much the same as Caleb but with even more anxiety. Joan’s thoughts were so strange. _Okay so if Chloe can now hear me I’d better start organising what I think about. No personal thoughts like about how Annabelle looks or how Mark is-wait no don’t think about that now. Think about other things like schoolwork, books, Chapter 47 of The Defender’s Handbook, I did that work, wait did I do question 8b?_

Worst of all was Sam. The moment she realised Chloe could hear her thoughts they exploded into a mess. There was screaming, flashes of memories, and repeated over and over was she can’t know, she can’t know, I couldn’t face her if she knew. After a few more minutes Sam stood up and told them that she needed to do homework. Her thoughts told Chloe that she just needed to get away from her. Chloe hadn’t been expecting it to hurt this much.

Classwork became both way easier and way harder. She could hear the teacher’s thoughts and therefore she knew exactly what they meant and she knew everything before she was taught but it just got so messy. Everyone else in the class would be thinking at different volumes and it was so loud and during one particularly confusing Potions lesson she snapped and yelled at everyone to shut up. Then she had left and spent the rest of the day in her dorm room trying to focus. 

Her mother sent letters with information to help her control it but there was only so much. Most Legilimens were able to turn their power on and off like a switch but Chloe’s was not like that. She hadn’t trained her mind for years. She had just been given all these new thoughts to try and keep in her brain but it was just so tiring. 

She found out however, that there was one person whose thoughts she couldn’t read. Damien. She tried to see what he was thinking, just out of curiosity, because well, she kind of wanted to know if his thoughts were as creepy as she thought they would be, when she found that upon trying to read his thoughts, there was nothing. Only a cold emptiness. And she suspected that he knew. The moment she realised that there was nothing there, he turned to look at her with at first shock, and then disgust. He didn’t bring it up, thankfully, Chloe did not want to have a conversation with Damien about that, but it left Chloe with many questions. 

“Chloe, can I talk to you for a moment?” Chloe looked across their dorm room. The two of them had been given a separate room as the Hufflepuff common room had apparently decided to create far too many bedrooms and so the prefects just let everyone go nuts. Chloe really appreciated the privacy and the fact that the only other person she had to deal with was her best friend. It made their night time conversations so much easier. 

Chloe didn’t know what Rose was going to say. She tried to pick it out from Rose’s thoughts but they were a mess today and while it didn’t hurt her the way some people’s messy thoughts did, it made it impossible to hear anything clear. So, when Rose spoke, Chloe was understandably surprised.

“So, I’m similar to you. But I can’t read thoughts. I can go into people’s dreams.” If Chloe hadn’t known that pretty much most things were possible these days, after all she had the ability to read people’s minds, she would have called Rose a liar. Well, she wouldn’t, Rose would never lie, and even if she did, Chloe would never be malicious towards Rose about it. 

“So, what does that entail specifically?” Rose shrugged.  
“Basically that when I go to sleep I dream really lucidly and I can enter other people’s consciousness. It’s kind of like your thing in the way that I just got it randomly. My family had no idea what to think when I showed up in my brothers dream.” 

Chloe processed the new development. She hadn’t been expecting this. She didn’t know how she hadn’t heard about this before. She guessed because it had never been at the forefront of her mind and Chloe couldn’t pick up on subconscious thoughts yet. Then suddenly she had an idea. Probably, a stupid idea that would never work, but an idea all the same. 

“Do you think that we could dreamwalk together? Like, I could read your mind when you sleep and you could pull me in?” _That sounds cool but there is no way that would- Well actually if I went into her dream and was able to sense my presence and read my mind we could maybe do it. Huh._

After that initial proposal of the idea Chloe and Rose tried to dreamwalk together every night. It was just as hard as they had initially thought but they knew it was possible. One time when Rose had entered Chloe’s dream, Chloe had reached out and for a moment found herself becoming more solid and then she lost it. 

It took them five tries to do it. When Chloe opened her eyes, well not really, she supposed, as this was a dream, she was in a very familiar room. It was Rose’s room, just like she remembered it from the last time she had visited Rose’s house. Chloe felt a smile rise up as she thought of that last visit. Aaron had had some of his friends over and they were playing Quidditch in the yard. Chloe and Rose had trying cooking. 

Rose was actually a brilliant cook, and a wonderful potioneer, but Chloe was not. Their attempt ending up filling the kitchen with smoke. Chloe had apologised about a million times and every time Rose had brushed it off with a smile and a laugh. It had been such a lovely afternoon. That had actually been when Chloe had told Rose about the power she was gaining. 

Then she turned her head to the side. Rose was standing in the door watching. Chloe reached her mind and she heard the thoughts of Rose. Just a little more. Then she saw a flash of white light bursting around the edges of her eyes. Everything felt sharper, more real. She had done it. 

“Woah.” Chloe looked to the side to see Rose smiling back at her, looking surprised and joyful.  
“It worked!” Rose exclaimed, that beautiful smile growing on her face. The same one she wore after doing a really tricky potion.  
Chloe smiled back.

“I told you. You just have to have optimism.” Rose snorted. Adorable.  
“Forgive me for being a little surprised that we are currently in your dream. And the fact that you are reading my mind in your sleep. And sharing my weird power. Something you’ve been trying for ages.” Chloe laughed.  
“Hush. Just enjoy the moment.”

Rose looked around her room.  
“It’s still really hard to believe that I can do this.” She had an expression filled with wonder on her face, eyes brighter than stars. Chloe had thought Rose couldn’t get more beautiful, but here, in this strange dream world she looked like a mythic being. So full of power and a mysterious beauty.

Chloe shook her head. That’s enough thinking about how good Rose looks. We can’t go falling in love with her. She’s our best friend. We can’t lose that. 

Rose turned to Chloe with a smile and Chloe was suddenly glad that Rose could not read her mind. That might make for an awkward moment.  
“This is going to be so cool. I can’t wait for you to see what I see.” Chloe beamed at her.  
“Well then we’d better get started. What do we do first?” Rose smiled. 

“Well, we could go into other people’s head but we could just stay here. I’m sure if I helped you we could change this to something a little more interesting.” Rose shifted her foot.  
“What do you want to do Chlo?”  
“I think we should just stay here. In my dream I mean. We don’t have to stay in your bedroom, right?” Rose shook her head with a grin. 

“Nope, you can change it to pretty much anything that you know.” Chloe thought for a moment.  
“Could I take us to the valley behind your house? The one we had that picnic at over summer?” Rose grinned. 

“Why don’t you try?” Chloe closed her eyes and concentrated on her memories of that valley. She could almost smell the flowers and fresh grass. She smiled and when she opened her eyes, they were there.  
“Perfect.” And for that moment, it really was. 

Chloe knew that something had to go wrong with her power sooner or later. Like, that she would hear something and it would be bad and she wouldn’t know how to react and things would get awkward. But she hadn’t thought that what she would hear would be like this. _I can’t let Chloe know I killed my parents. I can’t let her know about the crash. I can’t let her know that it’s my fault, it’ my fault, it’s my fault. Wait she’s looking at me. Shit did she hear that. No, no, no, she can’t, she can’t know._

Chloe was so startled that she couldn’t form words. Sam’s thoughts just got louder and tears formed in her eyes. She heard Sam mumbling something and staggering away, trying to hide the pain on her face. It was the morning of the first Hogsmeade trip. Sam didn’t leave her room. Chloe felt the guilt deep in her heart. When Sam started ignoring her Chloe didn’t try to reach out. Maybe it was for the best. She didn’t want to hurt Sam more.

Dreamwalking with Rose became the easiest thing in the world. They usually stayed in Rose’s dreamworld and went through different places, talking and just enjoying this special place that was all their own. Sometimes though, when they were feeling adventurous, they would go into other people’s dreams. Most of the times they were messy and made little sense but it was fun. 

Except of course for two types of dreams. First was the nightmares, the two girls hated it when they entered someone’s mind only to find them in the grasps of their worst fears. Those dreams had such a chilling feel. The other type of dream that was not fun to be in was a fantasy dream. Too many times had they entered someone’s mind and found them exploring some of their more, well, physical desires. That was just really awkward and they made sure to try and check the feeling of a dream before entering. 

The best part of it was that Chloe got to spend time alone in this special world with Rose. She loved her friends so much but there was something different about Rose. Chloe found that she was having to tell herself more and more that they were just friends, that Chloe felt nothing but friendship towards her. But she kept noticing how beautiful Rose was, how absolutely extraordinary she was, and Adam’s words from last year echoed in her head. ‘Speaking of liking people, what about you and Rose?’

When Caleb and Adam finally started dating, Chloe was not surprised at all. After all, she had been reading their thoughts. She found it really nice to see that while they were still being idiots about each other, they at least knew the other was also being an idiot. If that made any sense at all. It was really sweet to see them holding hands or thinking such adorable thoughts about each other. Chloe hoped she found that type of happiness one day. She loved love and she just wanted to feel it. 

Chloe and Rose were sitting around their dream version of the Great Lake when Rose said  
“So, Emily asked me out today.” Chloe tried her best not to freeze but she couldn’t help it. She hadn’t exactly been expecting Rose to say that.  
“What did you say?” Chloe asked, desperately telling herself that no, she wasn’t jealous, she was just curious. 

“Well, I said yes. I do kind of like Emily.” _She’s really pretty. Man, she was so awkward when she asked me out. And that dorky little smile._ Chloe yanked her mind away from Rose’s head. For the first time ever, Rose’s thoughts hurt. And that scared Chloe. It scared her and she realised that maybe this time, she wouldn’t be able to ignore her feelings. She turned her head away to hide the pain in her eyes before she realised that she needed to answer.

“Oh, that’s cool.” There was a pause and then Rose asked.  
“Are you okay?” Chloe swallowed a lump in her throat. No, she was not fine but Rose couldn’t know that.

“Yeah I’m just tired. I have a little bit of a headache. Thoughts have been really loud today.” Chloe reached her mind out tentatively to see if Rose believed her. _That must suck. I think I got the lucky side of getting strange powers at birth. Imagine having people’s thoughts shoved in your head randomly. Wow, that must suck._

Chloe nearly laughed. Yeah, it really did suck. The little voice in her head was getting louder. Chloe didn’t think she could ignore it anymore.  
“Do you still want to dreamwalk tonight?” No, she couldn’t do that. Not with what she now knew.  
“Sorry, I might miss it tonight.” This was such bad timing for her to figure it out.  
“Okay I hope you feel better soon.” She liked Rose. A lot.

The next day Chloe was so lost in her own thoughts that she barely had the energy to deal with everyone else’s. She really needed to get this out. She needed to figure out whatever the hell this was. She hoped Rose didn’t notice the way she was acting. She didn’t know if she could withstand lying to Rose again. 

Chloe shouldn’t have been surprised when she caught Joan thinking worried thoughts about her. _Chloe has been acting weird recently. Maybe she heard something? Whatever it is it’s big. I haven’t seen Chloe without a smile in ages. Maybe during exams once or twice but this is different. Maybe I should talk to her about it. We’re not exactly close though._

Chloe was actually sort of touched by the fact that Joan wanted to help her out. Actually, the more she thought about it, the more she thought that maybe talking to Joan about this could be helpful. Joan knew how to keep a secret and Chloe knew that it was due to her that Caleb and Adam had sorted out their things. She must give pretty good advice.  
So, Chloe approached Joan that afternoon and as casually as she could manage asked

“Hey Joan, could I talk to you for a second?” Joan turned to her with confusion on her face and mind. _What could Chloe want to talk to me about? Is it the thing that was bothering her this morning? And why would she be coming to me? Aren’t her and Rose best friends? Unless this has something to do with Rose._

Chloe blushed slightly.  
“Yeah I’m gonna stop you right there.” Joan looked at her, confused.  
“I didn’t say-oh! You’re reading my thoughts. Sorry, I forgot about that.” Chloe smiled apologetically.  
“It’s fine, but yeah, it’s kind of about Rose.” With that Joan led Chloe to a more secluded place.

They ended up in the library, in the back, right next to the Restricted Section. Joan looked at Chloe expectantly. Chloe tried to push her thoughts away but when they were sitting so close it was kind of hard. 

“So, what is this about Rose?” Chloe realised that she had absolutely no plan on how to deal with this. She didn’t even know if she would be able say the words.  
“Well,” Chloe paused and took a few deep breaths, “I kind of think I like Rose.” Joan blinked. 

“Oh, well,” Joan cleared her throat and paused for a moment. Chloe could hear her trying to sort her thoughts. _Well, I did not exactly see that coming. What does she want me to do about it? I don’t exactly know if I can give relationship advice. Except for Caleb and Adam. But that was just a matter of getting them to overlook mixed signals and confusion. This is completely different. Okay, let’s step this through._

“So, um, how did you realise this?” Joan asked, clearly unsure how to do this.  
“Well, I guess I’ve kind of known for a while now and I’ve been in denial but when she told me about her girlfriend I kind of just realised what it was. Which is really sucky timing.” _Rose has a girlfriend? Hmm, I wonder if Chloe is just jealous that her friend is going to be spending time with someone else. This might not actually be-_

“I do have a crush on her. This isn’t just me interpreting friendship weirdly.”  
It irked Chloe that Joan just didn’t seem to grasp the whole mind reading thing. And it wasn’t like Chloe was trying to read, it was just happening. Joan could at least try.  
“Okay. So, Rose has a girlfriend?” Chloe nodded.

“Yeah, well at least she got asked out by a girl and she said yes.” Joan nodded slowly.  
“Well, would you feel comfortable telling Rose about this?” Chloe stared at Joan, trying to figure out if she was serious. Joan sighed.

“Obviously not. Well, I don’t really know Chloe. When I helped out Caleb and Adam it was mostly a matter of getting them to talk to each other because I knew that they booth liked each other but with this-”  
“With this it’s pretty clear that Rose doesn’t like me.” Chloe finished, a sick feeling rising in her chest. 

“I really am sorry Chloe.” _I have no idea how to handle this. I mean, I can’t even tell Ann- no don’t think about that. That is not something I want Chloe to know about. _What Chloe did next was quite rash but at that point in time, Chloe didn’t really care. There was just too much in her head and there was a pain in her chest and something needed to go.__

__“I know that you like Annabelle, Joan. You don’t need to act like it’s some big secret.” Joan’s expression turned to one of panic ( _Chloe can’t know, what if she’s told someone, what if Mark knows, they can’t know _), then one of embarrassment ( _Why couldn’t I have just not thought about this. I’ve been so immature when it comes to Annabelle _), and then finally a steely mask ( _I need time to gather myself. I don’t think being around Chloe right now is a good idea _).  
Joan stood up and told Chloe is a voice that could almost be described as cold said_______ _

________“I’m sorry Chloe, I have to leave. If you’re still reading my thoughts, you know why.” Then she turned her back and walked away stiffly. The unexpected anger that had jumped up in Chloe died quickly and she was left with regret. She shouldn’t have done that. She shouldn’t have used Joan’s feelings and thoughts against her._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________After that conversation Chloe decided to not tell anyone about her feelings. It wasn’t exactly like anyone could do anything to help her. What she hated the most was that, after their conversation, Joan seemed to be finding many ways to ignore her. They hadn’t exactly been all that close but they had been friends and Chloe hated that now whenever she was close enough to read Joan’s thoughts, they were full of worry that Chloe could hear things._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Chloe may not have been all that close with Joan, but she had thought, considering how good friends they had been, Sam would have talked to Chloe by now. But every time Chloe was near Sam, Sam would find a way to leave. She knew that Joan had talked to Sam but hadn’t gotten anywhere. Chloe hated it. She had really appreciated having Sam as a friend and knowing that she was in pain made it worse._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Chloe started noticing more and more how her friends were acting around her. Their thoughts were scared and wild, they avoided eye contact, and every time she opened her mouth she saw panic on their faces and in their minds. So, she tried to reach out, tried to be casual, to not say what she heard, but it was hard, because when there was so much in her head she had no idea how to act._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________The next people who started avoiding her were Caleb and Adam. She didn’t even think that they noticed what they were doing. And she knew why. Every time she saw them being adorable or commenting things about each other in their head she just had to react. She loved love. But sometimes when she remarked on how sappy their thoughts were, the boys would get embarrassed. So, when they started telling her, that no they couldn’t hang out, they had stuff to do, she understood and let them go. They deserved space. She could at least give them that._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________In a time when all her friends seemed to be avoiding her, she wished she had Frank to lean on. He was her rock, so strong, and calm, and able to handle difficult situations with ease. But he and Mark seemed to have taken on the role of trying to help Sam be okay. She was glad, because Sam needed friends, but at the same time, she wished they could be there for her too. She was slipping away into her thoughts and no one seemed to notice. And she got it, everyone had their own problems, she didn’t need attention all the time, but she found a sense of loneliness setting in. And then there was Rose._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Chloe did not bring up her feeling to Rose. She tried her best not to think about it and whenever Rose brought up Emily, her new girlfriend who was apparently amazing, Chloe tried her best to be the supportive friend. She tried her best to not let her hurt feelings get in the way. Rose was her best friend after all. She could get over it._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________But Chloe could feel the strain on their friendship. Rose was spending more and more time with Emily. Chloe had worked up the courage to dreamwalk with Rose again, but she found that their trips were become more and more infrequent. She heard Rose’s wondering thoughts about why Chloe was acting so cagey. It scared her. She hated being ignored. She hated being treated like some sort of villain who was stealing into people’s brains on purpose. But if Rose left as well, she didn’t know what would happen._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Chloe had been so on edge recently and she knew that once again, something had to snap. She was trying her best, but trying to keep her feelings from Rose, and trying to be her best friend, but also keeping her at arm’s length was just so difficult._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________One day she was studying with Rose and she was struggling with the work. It was Potions. She was so bad at Potions. Rose usually found it adorable but today Chloe could hear her getting more and more annoyed at her. It wasn’t her fault, she just didn’t get it. And here was Rose thinking that she just needed to focus, that she was probably wasting her time, that Chloe wouldn’t get it, that spending time with Emily would be much better and Chloe just broke._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

___________“If I’m so difficult Rose, why don’t you just go spend time with Emily? Wouldn’t that be better?” Chloe heard the hurt but she just shut it out.  
“Chloe, you want me to help you-”  
“You telling me things and then thinking that I’m stupid for not getting it, does not qualify as helping. So, just, just go. It’s obvious where you’d rather be.” Chloe stared Rose down. She didn’t know why. It hurt. It hurt so much to push her away but she did it. _ _ _ _ _

________Rose’s eyes showed pain, showed shock. She probably hadn’t been expecting Chloe to do something like that. Chloe wasn’t like that usually. A small part of Chloe felt glad to get it out, to let Rose know that she wasn’t okay, but that part was being drowned by the regret filling her stomach. She didn’t let herself read Rose’s thoughts. She didn’t want to know._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Rose filled her eyes with a firm determination.  
“Fine. I’ll leave you to study by yourself. And when you get a bad grade on this, don’t blame me. I tried to help you.” Then she turned and stormed away. And Chloe realised fully what she had just done. She had just pushed away the one person she wanted the most._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________The next few weeks were so lonely. Frank was about the only person who bothered spending time with her. The two of them never really talked, instead they spent most of their time painting together. It was nice and comforting, but it wasn’t her banter with Caleb and Adam, and it wasn’t the nerdy conversations with Sam, and it wasn’t the feeling she got from spending time with Rose. But she told herself it was for the best and that she should count herself lucky that Frank wanted to spend time with her._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

___________Then, one afternoon, as she was sitting alone in the Great Hall doing work, Sam walked in and sat next to her. Chloe was surprised to say the least. She couldn’t really think of anything to say.  
“Hi?” Well that would have to do. Sam bit her lip as if she was psyching herself up. (Come on. You two were best friends. You can talk to her. Remember what Mark said. Just look her in the eyes and tell her)  
“I’m sorry. It’s not your fault that you can hear what I’m thinking and I should have known that you wouldn’t care. I shouldn’t have avoided you. I’ve been a terrible friend.”_ _ _ _ _

________Chloe stared at Sam for a second in stunned surprise. This had not been what she was expecting and she hated that Sam felt responsible for what was happening. She followed her first instinct and hugged Sam tightly.  
When she let go she started speaking to Sam._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

___________“Don’t worry Sam. I don’t blame you. And what happened, well, if you ever want to talk I’m here,” (That’s such a Chloe offer, but I really don’t think I can do that, I mean- )  
“-And I know that you probably don’t want to talk about it and that’s okay,” (She’s being so nice. I’ve been treating her so terribly. If only-)  
“-Don’t feel guilty about it, I get it. Really, it’s not your fault, I get that I’ve been hard to be around recently and, oh.” _ _ _ _ _

________Chloe paused. She just realised what she had done. It had been so long since she had had a conversation with someone like this and she had unconsciously let her power take over. She really would have to get control over that._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Sorry, I’m still getting used to this whole thing. And I haven’t really talked to anyone recently.” Probably shouldn’t have said that, but I’m sure it’s fine._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________After that conversation, Sam started spending far more time with Chloe. The two of them usually just relaxed in the Room of Requirement, which was apparently where Sam had spent most of the year. Their conversations were long and even though Chloe tended to accidentally monopolize them due to her reading Sam’s mind, Sam didn’t seem to mind.  
Chloe knew she had missed spending time with Sam but she hadn’t realised how good it would feel having one of her closest friends back. Chloe made sure to avoid the topic of Sam’s parents, as she knew Sam did not want to talk about that, and it didn’t make the conversations awkward. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________One time though, as they were talking about Caleb and Adam, and how absolutely adorable they were together, Sam had just causally said  
“Yeah, and I know Rose has a girlfriend as well, what’s her name? Anna, Emma, something like that?” Chloe had involuntarily looked down and frowned. She really did not want to talk about that. She trusted Sam to keep it quiet but she just did not want to talk about it._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Um, Emily. Her name’s Emily.” She said quietly. (She doesn’t seem to want to talk about that. Weird. Wouldn’t she be happy to talk about Rose having a girlfriend? Unless there’s something else going on here. Something like- wait, that’s not my business. Let’s change the subject.) They never brought it up again and for that Chloe was grateful._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________As the year wore on and exams started coming up, Chloe started feeling tired. She hated studying alone. She would study with Sam, but Sam wanted to study with the people doing her material, and so they could all bond over the stress of OWL’s. Caleb and Adam always studied together and she would study with Rose but, well, they still weren’t talking. This fact made a lot of their interactions really awkward. Chloe tried her best not to read Rose’s thoughts, mostly out of the fear that if she did, she would find out that Rose really hated her a lot._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________But it was tiring having to avoid people. It was tiring to have to pretend she was fine whenever Rose looked away from her or when she gave Chloe a small smile if they accidentally made eye contact. And Chloe hated it. So, she started thinking. Was it really worth avoiding her over something like this? They had been friends for so long. And Chloe wasn’t ready to let that end. So, she decided to reach out._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

___________She made the first move one night when they were both in their dorm room, doing their standard ignoring each other.  
“Hey.” There was a pause. Chloe wasn’t looking at Rose’s face but she assumed it was showing confusion and surprise.  
“Hi?” Another pause._ _ _ _ _

___________“I’m sorry.” Chloe said quietly, hoping that Rose wouldn’t just brush it aside.  
“So, are we finally going to talk about this?” Rose asked, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.  
“Maybe it’s time.” _ _ _ _ _

________“Couldn’t it have been time the day of the fight? Or the day after? It’s nearly been two months Chloe.” Chloe paused and closed her eyes tightly. Rose was right of course. It had been a long time._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“I know. But at least I’m doing it. Isn’t that a start?”  
“What are you apologising for?” Chloe slowly turned around. She couldn’t do this with her back facing Rose. She saw that Rose had her arms folded, and she knew that if she met her eyes, there would be defiance and determination in them._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“I’m apologising for yelling at you, for ignoring you, for being a jerk and overreacting. I’ve been terrible to you.”  
Rose slowly unfolded her arms._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Why did you do it? This whole time, ignoring me, why did you keep doing it? Couldn’t you just read my mind and, I don’t know say whatever you needed to, to make me forgive you?” Chloe looked up at Rose with shock._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Rose, I would never. I would never read you mind just to see what you wanted me to say. I didn’t read your mind because, well, I thought if I did that I would see how much you really hated me.” Rose laughed, not mockingly, almost sadly._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“I don’t hate you. I don’t think I could ever hate you. You’re like the least hateable person ever. Annoying and sometimes infuriating, yes definitely, but not hateable.”  
Chloe looked down and suddenly found herself laughing. Small bursts of it and then she was nearly in tears because of how hard she was laughing. At first it didn’t make sense but then, yeah it did. How had she been so stupid? Why had she let herself believe that Rose hated her? Why hadn’t she reached out sooner? Why hadn’t she just read Rose’s mind and seen that they were totally cool?_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

___________She felt a hand touch her shoulder.  
“Are you okay?” Rose asked her with some level of concern. Chloe shook her head.  
“Oh, I’m fine, it’s just, I’ve been so stupid about this. I should have just talked to you. I should have just found out if you hated me or not rather than ignoring you.” She looked up at Rose, hoping that she too saw the stupidity of the situation. It seemed she did because she cracked a smile and laughed a bit._ _ _ _ _

________“And I should have just talked to you. I was convinced that you didn’t want to be my friend anymore, that you had well, gotten bored of me.” Immediately Chloe jumped into protective best friend mode._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

___________“What? I would never! You are like the coolest person alive. I am so lucky to have been considered your best friend.” After a moment she added on  
“And you are honestly the greatest. I’ve really missed spending time with you.” Rose smiled and nodded.  
“Yeah. Emily’s great and all but I needed you.” _ _ _ _ _

___________Chloe tried to ignore the mixed feelings that that statement brought. She could deal with those later. Right now she needed to be the best friend, not the pining best friend.  
“So, does this mean we can go back to talking and studying together, because I have been dying without a study buddy.” Rose laughed.  
“I knew there was a reason you kept me around.” Chloe grinned._ _ _ _ _

________“Yes. The only reason I want to be your friend is because of your dazzling intellect.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Having her best friend back might have been the best thing that happened to Chloe all year. Study sessions got way less boring, conversations became filled with way more laughter, and they even started dreamwalking together again. Chloe had really missed that. She had missed having a special place for only her and Rose. But most of all she just loved the way that Rose lit up the world whenever Chloe was near her._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Chloe knew that at some point she would have to meet Emily, so when Rose got them to all have food together, she didn’t resist much. Emily was nice, and funny, and probably a great girlfriend. So, Chloe tried her hardest to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that Rose was happy._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________It was close to the end of the year when Sam pulled Chloe to the side with racing thoughts.  
“Sam? What’s going on?” (I can’t believe he, to Mark, Damien, I mean would Mark even, god what if Mark had said yes?)_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

___________Chloe tilted her head to the side in worry.  
“Sam? What happened to Mark? And how is Damien involved? He didn’t-he didn’t hurt Mark, right?” Sam took in sharp breath.  
“No, thank god, but well, Damien asked Mark out.” Chloe paused for a moment. She wasn’t surprised. _ _ _ _ _

________Just because she couldn’t read Damien’s thoughts, didn’t mean that she didn’t know how much of a crush he had on Mark. It was painfully obvious. He only talked to Mark, and when he did, he sometimes even ended up smiling. And during class times he was always staring across the room at Mark. She was surprised that Damien actually had the courage to ask Mark out._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

___________“You don’t seem to be surprised, oh right you probably read his thoughts and-”  
“No, I didn’t. I can’t read Damien’s thoughts. I don’t know why. But his crush on Mark was obvious.” Sam looked shocked.  
“What do you mean obvious? I-how didn’t I notice?” Chloe chuckled quietly. _ _ _ _ _

________“Well, not to be rude but you have kind of been very self-absorbed this year. I don’t think you wouldn’t noticed. Also, you are super oblivious.” Sam turned red and Chloe had to stop herself laughing._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________The end of the year seemed to be very sudden but at the same time, Chloe barely remembered the start of the year. She found, with some concern, that she didn’t even remember what it was like before she had her power. She didn’t think she could imagine living without it. As annoying as it was sometimes, it had truly become a part of her life._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________On the train ride home, she let her mind drift through the heads of her friends casually. They didn’t seem to be as on guard so she just picked up whatever thoughts floated her way. Sam was glad that she would be coming to live with Chloe, something that Chloe was also looking forwards to. Caleb and Adam were still somehow basking in each other’s presence. Joan was thinking about Annabelle, which made Chloe leave her thoughts very quickly, that was not something she wanted to hear about._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________And Rose, Rose wasn’t thinking about anything in particular but her thoughts still made Chloe feel warm and happy. She didn’t even bother inwardly chastising herself this time. She just basked in the happiness of the moment and hoped that the next year would be better than this one._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that's the chapter. Once again we have a pining idiot and an oblivious idiot. They'll figure it out one day. Next time around we're gonna have oblivious idiots, followed by very soft gay idiots. That's right, it's gonna be a Caleb chapter. Thanks to everyone who is here reading this, your kudos and comments are much appreciated. Farewell until next chapter!


	15. Together, Hand in Hand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, sorry for the long wait. But as promised I have returned with a Caleb chapter. I hope that this is sufficiently good enough to make up for disappearing for a month.  
> Enjoy!

Coming back to school was pretty much the most energising experience ever. There was of course the whole thing about it being a magic school, and his Quidditch, and his friends, and the whole fact that Adam was there, his best friend in the world, whom he had a stupid crush on. But this year, there would be an added excitement. His sister would be joining him.

Alice, of course, got her letter along with Caleb. She didn’t stop bouncing around the house all day. When she got her wand, Caleb thought she might actually faint. He knew she had been waiting for this moment for as long as she had known about magic. And now, she would be have the chance to see all the things he had.

When they got to the Platform, and away from the happy smiles and hair ruffles of their parents, Alice turned to Caleb.  
“Hey, Caleb?” She asked, kind of awkwardly. He met her gaze with a comforting grin.  
“What’s up Alice?” She shifted her foot.  
“Would it be alright if I found some other kids in my year, rather than sitting with you and your friends? I mean, I know they’re all really cool, and I know that mum told you to take care of me but, I just kind of want to do this myself.” Caleb smiled at her.

“Sure, go ahead. I hope you find some people that can tolerate your dorkiness.” She rolled her eyes.  
“Idiot.” Then she walked away to the train. He smiled as she left.

“What are you smiling at meathead?” Came a voice with an underlying smile. Caleb felt his stomach burst into butterflies as he recognised the voice.  
“Just my sister,” He said, turning to face Adam, who was leaning on his luggage trolley with a grin. His black hair had been recently cut and his green eyes sparkled. Caleb was momentarily wordless.

“It’s gonna be strange having a little you running around.” Caleb regained his composure and rolled his eyes.  
“Please don’t refer to my sister as a ‘little me’.” Adam smirked.  
“I’m definitely doing that.”

“Dork.”  
“Meathead.” Caleb smiled at Adam. His breath caught in his chest a little.  
“I’ve missed you,” He told Adam sincerely. Adam smiled back warmly.  
“I’ve missed you too.”

Finding out that Chloe had mind reading powers was really freaky. And it made Caleb go into a panicky spiral of thoughts. Like, what if she knew about him liking Adam? And Chloe wasn’t exactly world renowned for keeping secrets. What if she accidentally let it slip and told Adam? That would be so embarrassing. 

The Sorting Ceremony was the most fun it had been in years. Caleb hadn’t even realised that the Sorting Hat sang a song! When his sisters name was called out he held his breath. Around the table he heard people whispering. He guessed they were wondering if Alice was anything like him.  
Alice sat on the stool for about ten seconds before the hat shouted 

“GRYFFINDOR!” The red and gold table erupted in joy. Caleb felt nervous. He had wanted to be able to keep an eye on her but now with her in a different house that might be tricky. Then he noticed Frank staring at him. Frank nodded and gave Caleb a warm smile. Caleb felt better knowing that Frank would help out. 

The next morning when Caleb came down to breakfast, he didn’t look for his friends first. He instead scanned the Gryffindor table for a sign of his sister. He found her sitting with a few other girls smiling and laughing. She saw him looking at her, rolled her eyes, and gave a small wave. Caleb smiled back and then looked for his friends. Unsurprisingly, the first one he noticed was Adam, who still had a serious case of bed hair. Absolutely fucking adorable.

When Caleb sat down Adam nudged him.  
“Hey meathead.” Caleb smiled at him.  
“Hey dork. What’s with the hair?” Adam scowled.  
“I am one hundred and ten percent sure that it’s Mark’s fault. He was doing his prank face last night. He must have cursed me before I went to my dorm.” Caleb laughed.

“Maybe you’re just having a bad hair day.” Adam rolled his eyes and jokingly shoved Caleb. When Caleb looked away he saw Chloe giving them a knowing look. Instead of responding to it, he focused on his food.

When Quidditch tryouts were announced, Caleb started getting super nervous. He had gotten in two years in a row but he knew there were some new kids who were apparently really good. Mark kept telling him that everything would be fine but Caleb didn’t quite believe that. Mark after all, had nothing to worry about. He was probably one of the best Chaser’s the school had seen. There was no way that he wouldn’t get the position. Caleb had already started hearing rumours that next year Mark would be elected as captain.  
Alice told Caleb that he was being stupid.

“Dude, I’ve seen you fly. You are so good. I mean, once I learn, I’ll probably be better, you know, genetics and that stuff, but for now, you’re awesome.” Caleb knew that this was his sister’s weird way of telling him that she believed in him. But Caleb was allowed to be nervous. Quidditch was really important to him, and missing the team would absolutely suck.

On the day of the Quidditch tryouts, all of his friends, and even Alice and hers showed up. As Caleb was prepping he searched for Adam’s face. Adam gave him a smile and a thumbs up. Caleb felt better. He felt green, not a nervous green, more of a happy green. Adam had that effect on him. When the tryouts happening, Caleb felt free and confidence surged through him. 

The lists were released a week later and Caleb’s name was on it, along with Mark’s. Adam had smiled at him and told him that he knew it. To Caleb, that was almost better than getting the spot. 

The next thing that Caleb had to hype himself up for was his first Quidditch game of the season. It was going to be a Hufflepuff vs Ravenclaw one. Gryffindor won their game against Slytherin, much to Frank, the new captain’s, delight. Now Caleb only hoped that Hufflepuff could pull through as well. 

Adam had joked about wearing Ravenclaw gear because he could not betray his house on their opening game. Caleb had just stared at Adam until he had grinned and said  
“But of course, my obligation to my best friend is far more important than my obligation to my house.” Caleb smiled at the thought as he fiddled with his broomstick handle. What a dork.

In the end, unfortunately, Hufflepuff lost to Ravenclaw by 20 points. Caleb scored 40 points but, in the end, it didn’t matter. The team was crushed of course, but they still shook hands with every member of the other team and gave them a smile. It was what they were known for after all. 

When Caleb got back to the common room, he pretty much sat with Mark and moped. Pretty much the whole team was joining them. Then, Adam and Joan strode into the room. Joan grabbed Mark, saying something about pastries and dumplings, and Caleb was left with Adam.

“Hey Adam.” Adam smiled down at him.  
“As much as I know you want to enjoy your mope fest, I think you should come with me. You know, chill, cheer you up.” Caleb couldn’t help but smile. Adam just always knew what to do. 

“So, where are you gonna take me?” Caleb asked, wincing inwardly at the way he phrased it. The two boys were making their way through the empty Hogwarts corridors. Adam’s cheeks took on a pink tint.  
“Uh, well, I thought to myself, what does a boy who just lost a Quidditch game want? And then it came to me.” Caleb grinned and tried to guess.

“A ‘you tried your best trophy’?” Adam snorted, wow that was such a cute noise.  
“Points for trying. No, what he wants is this.” Adam paused in front of a statue of a witch.  
“A creepy statue? Oh gee, thanks, always wanted one.” Adam laughed and shook his head.  
“Watch this.” He stepped forwards and tapped the witch with his wand.

“Dissendium.” The hump on the witch’s statue swung open to reveal a corridor. Caleb couldn’t stop a little surprised gasp.  
“Pretty cool right?” Adam asked, with no small amount of ego.  
“Where’s it lead to?” Adam’s smile widened.  
“Well, see, that’s the best part. As I always say, the only thing better than a secret tunnel, is a secret tunnel that leads to Honeyduke’s.” Caleb was so excited he punched Adam in the arm.

“Dude!”  
When Adam winced Caleb immediately stepped forwards and put his hand on Adam’s arm.  
“Sorry dude, you know how I get excited. Are you alright?” Adam looked up at him and Caleb became acutely aware of the fact that his hand was on Adam’s arm and their faces were so close, and wow Caleb could practically kiss him like this. He cleared his throat and stepped back.  
“Let’s get going.” Adam nodded and led the way. 

“So, how did you find out about this?” Caleb asked after about two minutes of walking through the dark passage in silence. Adam’s twirled his lit wand around his fingers.  
“Mark. He mentioned it a little back and I thought it would be a good idea. Oh, and don’t worry. We won’t have to steal; the owner lets kids buy thing if they come in from that passage. She’s nice like that.” Caleb did have to admit that he felt a little weight lift from his shoulders when Adam said that. He had been kind of worried that they were about to commit theft. 

Finally, they came to a doorway. Adam opened it slowly and they stepped through. They found themselves in the backroom of Honeyduke’s.  
“Woah dude, you weren’t kidding,” Caleb exclaimed with wonder. Adam grinned.  
“Why would I kid about this? Come on, let’s go buy some stuff.”

The owner was not surprised to see them there. Apparently, some other kids had stopped by earlier on in the night. Probably Ravenclaw’s stocking up on party candy. Caleb wasn’t distracted by that though. He and Adam together bought as much candy as they could conceivably carry.  
“If we don’t finish it tonight then we can eat it at other times. Always good to have a candy stash,” Adam reasoned. Caleb had to agree. When they left the owner smiled at them and waved.

“Have fun boys, but remember not to make yourselves sick,” she cautioned. With a chorus of ‘we won’t’, Adam and Caleb departed the shop.  
They didn’t go back to their dorm rooms. Instead, they went up to the Astronomy tower. Thankfully, there was no one else there at the time. The two boys sat down and spread the candy out. Caleb noticed that Adam made sure that Caleb had all of his favourites. Nice. 

“You know I think this is one of your best ideas ever,” Caleb told Adam. Adam looked down and Caleb noted the pink tint on his cheeks. He always seemed to be blushing around Caleb. Weird.

“Good to know I’m appreciated,” Adam said with a laugh. Caleb smiled softly. God, he really liked Adam. Like, so much. His hear was quick and everything felt fuzzy.  
“I always appreciate you Adam,” Caleb said. He felt so open and when Adam looked into his eyes, Caleb felt like anything could happen. 

The moonlight flowed in. Adam’s green eyes glinted. Both boys, seated on the ground, so close. Caleb wondered if Adam could hear his heart. Caleb had no idea where this was going. Every moment seemed to be electrified. 

Maybe it was this electricity in the air that made him do it. Or maybe he was just tired of hiding. But Caleb reached forwards and kissed Adam. It was quick, it was soft, and it was everything Caleb had ever wanted. When he pulled away, Adam looked stunned, like he had no idea how to respond. And then Caleb realised what he’d just done. Shit. Shit, shit, shit. He’d just kissed Adam. Oh shit.

He pulled back further.  
“Shit, Adam, I-I didn’t mean to do that.” The stunned look faded from Adam’s face, replaced by disappointment, and almost anger. Shit, shit, shit. Then he jumped up and all but sprinted away. Caleb was left sitting on the floor, candy surrounding him. He picked up a bar and threw it against the wall. Fuck.

Caleb didn’t get to sleep that night. He went to breakfast the next morning full of anxiety, only to find that Adam wasn’t there. So, Adam was obviously embarrassed about it and he didn’t want to talk to Caleb. Great. Absolutely fucking perfect. He was so glad that Chloe wasn’t there either. He really didn’t want all these thoughts exposed.

Adam didn’t talk to Caleb for that whole day, or the next. It sucked. Caleb was kind of panicking about the whole thing. Then, in the afternoon when Caleb walked out of his Potions class, Alice walked up to him and grabbed his arm.

“Dude, we need to talk.” Caleb frowned and let himself get dragged along by his surprisingly strong sister.  
“Um, why?” He asked. She shook her head.  
“No, wait.”

Eventually she pulled him out to the lake. When she was finally satisfied, they sat down and she immediately turned to him.  
“You have a crush on Adam, but obviously something happened between you because you haven’t spoken in two days.” Caleb opened his mouth to speak, say something in denial perhaps, but he could find nothing.

“Well? What happened?” She pressed. Caleb shifted on the grass and decided to backtrack.  
“How do you know I like Adam?” There was pretty much no use denying it. She snorted and waved her hand.  
“Dude, everyone knows. Stop avoiding the question. What happened?” Caleb sighed and shrugged uncomfortably. 

“Well, we were just chilling in the Astronomy Tower eating some candy. We’d gone through a secret passageway to Honeyduke’s to get it, you get to that passage by-”  
“I know how to do it, keep going.” He rolled his eyes.  
“Why do you care so much?” She shoved him.  
“Dude!”

“Alright, alright fine.”  
“So, we were chilling and we were super close and we were talking, and then there was this pause, and there was this energy in the air and I kind of thought he felt it too, like I thought he knew that I was feeling something. So, I kissed him. But he didn’t react, he just kind of looked shocked and stared at me. Then I panicked and told him that I didn’t mean to kiss him but he still freaked out and left.” 

Caleb turned to face his sister.  
“And now he’s still avoiding me.” Alice laughed.  
“Dude, you’re an idiot. I think Adam freaked because he realised you liked him as well.” Caleb frowned. That made no sense.  
“What?” Alice groaned and nudged Caleb.

“You should talk to him. He obviously likes you.” Caleb shook his head.  
“No, he doesn’t. He left. He doesn’t like me and he’s embarrassed about it, and I wish I could just reverse it all.” Alice rolled her eyes.  
“You are such a pain.”  
“Ah, Caleb, I was looking for you.” The siblings spun around to see Joan standing above them.  
“Joan?” Caleb asked, confused.

“Yes, Caleb. I need to speak with you.” She looked at Alice.  
“Alone.” Alice shrugged and got up.  
“Okay, that’s cool. Figure your stuff out bro.” Then she walked away back to the castle.  
Caleb stood up and turned to Joan, shoving his hands in his cloak pockets.

“What do you need me for?” Joan looked mildly irritated.  
“So, you and Adam aren’t talking.” Caleb nearly groaned.  
“No, we aren’t.” She sighed.  
“Okay, let’s get to the point. You need to talk to him about your feelings.” Caleb did actually groan this time.

“Does everyone know about me liking Adam?”  
“Everyone apart from Adam it would seem.”  
“So, what? You gonna tell me to talk to him? Because he does not want to talk to me.” Joan sighed.

“Have you perhaps considered Adam’s side in all of this.” Caleb stared at her, really confused. Of course, he had. Adam was embarrassed that his best friend had kissed him because he didn’t like him back. It was that simple.  
“Of course I have. He doesn’t like me.” Joan sighed again. He had no idea where this was going.

“Okay, so, what happened?” Caleb tried his best not to groan. He didn’t particularly want to recount the story again.  
“Adam and I are chilling. I think that there’s something going on between us, I kiss him, he flips out and leaves.” Joan nodded.  
“What did Adam look like when he left?”

“I don’t really know. Disappointed, and angry. I mean he was probably disappointed that I liked him and angry about it too.” Joan nodded, slower this time, her hands pressed together.  
“Did you say anything to Adam before he left? Something else?” Caleb shrugged.  
“I mean, yeah, I told him that I was sorry that I didn’t mean it and-”  
“You told Adam that you didn’t mean it?”

“I mean, yeah, I didn’t want him freaking out.” Joan sighed. Caleb folded his arms. What the hell was going on here.  
“Caleb, did you think that maybe Adam likes you, that you kissing him was surprising because he didn’t think you liked him back, but before he could tell you that he liked you, you told him you didn’t mean it?” 

“No that’s not what-” Caleb paused for a moment, thinking. The anger and disappointment had only showed up when Caleb had said that he didn’t mean it. What if Adam had thought that Caleb was just messing with his emotions? And Adam was always blushing around him. What if-oh. Shit. He’d really fucked up if this was the case.  
He looked up at Joan.

“Do you see it now?” She asked. Caleb nodded.  
“Yeah, yeah I get it. Fuck-I’ve been so stupid about this!” Caleb turned towards the castle. He had a sudden urge to find Adam and see what the hell was going on. He turned back to Joan.

“I need to find Adam. Do you-”  
“-Library, don’t have the conversation there.” Caleb nodded.  
“Thanks.” Then he sprinted off towards the castle and Adam.  
He ran into the library so fast that everyone looked up as he entered. He could see the librarian glaring at him.

“Sorry,” he stage whispered. He glanced around the library. No one in the front area was Adam. He decided to try in the stacks.  
He found Adam reading Arithmancy: The History, in the furthest row back of the library. He walked straight up to Adam and pushed his book down.  
“Dude, we need to talk.” Adam scoffed.

“No, we don’t.” Caleb sighed and grabbed Adam’s book out of his hand.  
“If you want this back you have to talk to me.” Adam folded his arms.  
“So? There’s about five more copies in these shelves.” Caleb groaned.

“Listen, Adam. We really need to talk. And I don’t want to do it in the library because, well, it’s kind of public and you know that I tend to raise my voice on accident. So, please, can you just come with me?” Adam looked like he was genuinely thinking about it. Good sign. Then, finally he said  
“Okay, yeah sure. But can we do this quickly? I need to study.”

Caleb ended up pulling Adam into an empty classroom before locking the door.  
“Okay, so-”  
“-No, I’m going first. What the fuck Caleb?” Caleb was so shocked by the pure anger radiating from Adam that he actually took a step back.  
“What-”

“-Listen. That was such a fucking dick move. Everything was going fine. And then you fucking kiss me? What the shit were you thinking? Yeah, Adam will be totally cool with me messing with his head like this, he’s gay! Or were you making fun of me?”  
Adam had his arms tightly folded and a scowl deeper than any Caleb had seen on Adam’s face.  
“What the fuck are you talking about Adam?” Caleb was starting to get frustrated. This was obviously a stupid idea.

“Don’t pull that Caleb. You may be a dickhead but you aren’t stupid. You knew that I had a fucking crush on you, and you decided to kiss me to be a piece of shit. And the worst part is that I thought you actually meant it. I can’t believe you did that. Like, come on Caleb, I didn’t think you were as much of a jerk as everyone else.”  
Caleb stepped forwards.

“I didn’t kiss you to make fun of you.” Adam scoffed.  
“Bullshit.”  
“It’s fucking true! You’re my best friend Adam! I wouldn’t pull that shit on you!”  
“Then why the fuck did you kiss me?”

“Because I fucking like you!” Caleb nearly shouted. There was silence in the room for a moment. A series of emotions ran over Adam’s face. The quietly, he asked.  
“Then why did you say you didn’t mean it?” Caleb stepped forwards, moving his hand forwards unconsciously.

“Because you didn’t react. And I kind of panicked, because I didn’t think you liked me back, and I thought that I’d ruined our friendship.” Adam laughed softly.  
“I didn’t react because I was kind of freaking out. And how could you not know I liked you? I’ve been so obvious about it.”  
Caleb laughed.

“Well so have I!” He shifted his foot.  
“I guess we’ve been kind of stupid about this whole thing, haven’t we?” Adam laughed again, all anger gone.  
“Yeah, we have.” He looked Caleb in the eye.

“You really like me?” He asked, still unsure. Caleb stepped forwards and took Adam’s hands in his own.  
“I really like you.”  
“Then kiss me again.” Caleb did it without hesitation. And this time, he didn’t panic. This time, he allowed those feelings to rise up and overtake him. It was perfect. Holy shit. There was no way that this was Adam’s first time kissing someone, he was so good at it. This was the best feeling. Caleb decided that he could probably do this for a living.  
A little while later they broke apart for longer than a breath.

“I thought you had studying to do.” Adam laughed and played with Caleb’s hair.  
“I was lying to you. I just wanted to have an excuse to leave. But now…” Caleb grinned and finished his sentence.  
“I guess you don’t need one.” Adam grinned back.  
“What a shame,” he said, and leant back in.

It was a fair bit longer before Caleb let himself take more than one step back from Adam.  
“So,” he started. Adam tried to look serious  
“So,” The two of them made eye contact before bursting into laughter. Eventually Caleb stopped himself. They really had to figure this out.  
“Okay, but seriously, what are we doing? Like, you like me, and I like you, so like what do we do?” Adam shrugged a nervous smile spreading over his face.  
“Do you want to, I don’t know, date?” Caleb had to pause for a moment to really consider what was going on.

“I mean, we don’t have to, we can be like guys that like each other and sometimes kiss, we don’t have to put a label on it-”  
“-Dude! I want to date you so hard!” Caleb exclaimed. Adam grinned and Caleb could see the joy that he was hiding behind his eyes.  
“So, boyfriends?” He asked. Caleb nodded and took Adam’s hand.  
“Boyfriends.”

It took approximately one hour for everyone to find out. When Caleb and Adam walked into the Great Hall holding hands with smiles on their faces, Mark slapped his hands on the table and turned to Frank.  
“God dammit!” He exclaimed, handing over two galleons. When the couple frowned Mark explained.'

“I bet Frank two galleons that you wouldn’t get together until after Christmas. You two couldn’t have been more oblivious for a few more months?”  
After that the rest of the conversation contained around eighteen more references to their relationship. Some notable mentions were; the others trying to figure out a ship name, (it came to a tie between Caladam and Michayes), Joan revealing that she had in fact, tried to convince both Adam and Caleb to talk to each other, but that only Caleb had listened, and, Mark trying to do a ‘take a shot of Butterbeer every time Caleb or Adam says anything sappy’ contest with Chloe. They took around twenty-three shots before stopping.

The very next day, Caleb was already seated at the table when Adam came down for breakfast. When he saw Adam, he got up and walked over. He greeted Adam with a smile and then they turned back to head over to the table. It was at this point he saw Alice rising from her table.  
He hadn’t yet told his sister about him and Adam, but he had a sneaking suspicion that Frank had spilled the beans. Caleb shifted next to Adam, unsure of what she had in mind. Alice strode forwards, looking very authoritative for an eleven-year-old.

She stopped right in front of Adam, who, although he was short, was about half a head taller than her. She poked him in the chest and then, very confidently said  
“Alright Adam. You seem cool. My brother likes you. Don’t mess up. If you do, I’ll learn that curse that twists your insides out.” Then she turned on her heel and walked away. Caleb immediately started giggling.  
“I love my sister.”

“Easy for you to say. She was quite terrifying in my opinion,” Adam replied, but he could not the smile from spreading across his face.  
Caleb had often heard that dating your best friend meant that nothing really changed. And it was pretty true. The two boys could be more affectionate now, they would kiss whenever they felt like it, and could now tell the other how absolutely amazing they were, and mean it in a not platonic way, but in all other senses, they were the exact same.

One thing that happened though, was that Caleb and Adam grew increasingly worried about Sam. She was becoming more and more withdrawn, pushing everyone away more and more. The two had known Sam pretty much the whole time they had been at Hogwarts, but this was definitely the lowest they had ever seen her at. 

They weren’t exactly the closest to her so they just decided to ask Mark or maybe Chloe, if they knew what was going on. Mark had smiled sadly.  
“She’s, well, I don’t know what it is, she,” he laughed sadly and ran a hand through his hair, “she won’t tell me what it is. I’m trying my best to get through to her, but I really don’t know. Thanks for asking though.” 

Caleb did consider asking Chloe about Sam, after all, she had probably read Sam’s thoughts, but he found that being around Chloe after getting her powers was weird. She would often answer his thought questions out loud, or, even worse, say his thoughts out loud. He knew she meant no harm, that she probably didn’t even realise what she was doing, but it was still weird.

He asked Adam about it one day, when they were both studying in the Hufflepuff common room.  
“Hey. So, this is kind of weird but I need to know.” Caleb paused. Adam looked up, worried.  
“What? Is it something bad?” He sounded so concerned that Caleb nearly jumped out of his chair to dissuade Adam’s fears.  
“No, no! Well, not about us. It’s about Chloe.” The fear faded from Adam’s face, replaced by understanding.  
“Right. I was wondering why you kept avoiding her.” Caleb frowned.

“What? No, I haven’t been ignoring Chloe.” But then he thought back the past few weeks. He hadn’t exactly talked to her much. But they must have not had the same classes. No, they had many same classes. Then they weren’t…oh.  
“Shit.” Caleb said quietly. Adam laughed softly.

“Yeah. You find it weird too?” Caleb bit his lip and then nodded slowly.  
“Yeah…”  
The two ended up deciding that they would try to hang around Chloe but, if things got awkward, they would leave. Neither of them noticed that they both continued to avoid Chloe. They were too busy being happy. And really, who could blame them. 

When Christmas came around, everyone went home. Sam stayed at school, and though everyone wondered why this was, she didn’t let anyone ask her. Caleb was particularly excited about this Christmas. After lots of convincing, Adam had agreed to stay at Caleb’s for some of the Christmas holiday. He would return home for the actual day, because he wanted to spend it with his family, but pretty much the rest of it would be spent at Caleb’s. 

Caleb had also decided, with Adam’s consent of course, that he was going to come out to his parents, and introduce Adam as his boyfriend. Alice had promised to support him and talk to his parents if anything went wrong. Nothing should go wrong, Caleb’s dad was pretty good about this stuff, and Caleb could never see his mum being mad about this, but it was still pretty nerve-wracking.

The day came around so much quicker than Caleb had thought it would. They had decided to do it as soon as Adam came over, which was a week or so after school ended. He had half a mind to back out, prolong it all until next year or something, but then he looked at Adam, standing in his doorway with a soft smile. 

“You ready?” He asked, still smiling. Caleb bit his lip. Adam saw what Caleb was feeling and took his hand.  
“Hey. You don’t need to do it if you aren’t ready. We can wait,” Adam told Caleb. Caleb shook his head.  
“No. I need to do it now.” Adam nodded and together the boys walked into the living room.

His dad was watching television with his mum and Alice was sitting in her armchair, pretending to be thoroughly engrossed in a textbook, when in reality, she was there as moral support. Adam squeezed Caleb hand and Caleb took in a deep breath, stepped forwards, and cleared his throat.  
His family looked at him. Alice gave him a small nod.

“So, uh, this is Adam, the guy who’s going to be staying with us.” Caleb’s dad nodded.  
“It’s nice to finally meet you Adam, Caleb speaks very highly of you.” Caleb’s mum smiled widely.  
“Yes, I’m so glad that Caleb has a friend like you.” Caleb saw his moment and cleared his throat again.  
“Well, actually, I need to tell you something.” Caleb’s parents looked confused. Caleb swallowed several times before saying the words.

“Adam is actually my boyfriend.” There was a pause. Alice turned her head to watch her parents, ready to speak out if they rejected the revelation. Caleb watched his parents face, waiting, hoping.  
His father was the first to speak.  
“How long?” Caleb’s words rushed out in nervousness.  
“Oh, um, only like a month or two, not long.” Caleb’s dad looked surprised.

“Really? Huh, I thought you two had been dating a bit longer than that.” Caleb couldn’t put two words together. What was his dad saying?  
“Well, I just figured that you weren’t ready to tell us. I mean, you always talked about him with lots of care, so yeah,” He finished awkwardly, putting his hands in his jeans.  
Caleb’s mum spoke.

“What your father is trying to get across is that we are glad that you felt like you could tell us now. And from what you’ve told us Adam seems like a very nice young man.” At this Adam started blushing like crazy.  
“Thanks.” He said with a nervous laugh. His dad nodded.

“Of course, now we have confirmation that you two are dating, you can’t sleep in the same room. Adam will have to take the spare if that’s fine with him.” Adam nodded quickly.  
“Oh yes, that would totally be fine.” Both Caleb and Adam were blushing furiously by this point. 

“Come on, I’ll show you where it is.” Caleb’s mum offered. Adam nodded and followed her. Once he had left the room, Caleb’s dad clapped Caleb on the shoulder.  
“I’m proud of you, kid.” Caleb nodded, wiping away the tears that had come to the corners of his eyes.  
“Thanks dad.” His dad wrapped him in a hug. Caleb felt so relieved that he thought he might just float away. When his dad left the room, Alice came over and punched him.  
“Good job bro. You did well.”

Adam’s stay went well. Adam was a master of being well behaved around authority figures. Caleb’s parents loved him. Caleb could barely go a moment without his dad telling him  
“I like this one, he’s smart,” or his mum going “He’s such a little gentleman.” It was a little embarrassing, but for the chance to spend more time with Adam, it was worth it.

For Christmas Caleb gave Adam a set of leather bound notebooks. Adam absolutely loved his notebooks and Caleb knew that he had been running out of them recently. Adam gave Caleb a little charmed figurine of Caleb flying on a broom stick. If you tapped it with your wand, it could also turn into a badge. It was really cool, and on Christmas afternoon Caleb spent most of his time playing with it.

On New Years Eve, they took Adam with them to watch the fireworks. They sat on a picnic blanket, surrounded by thousands of other families. Adam and Caleb held hand the whole time. When the countdown started, they shouted along. Then, right as the new year began, the two boys drew each other into a kiss. A little bit cliché, but Caleb really didn’t care. It was a promise of a good year to come.

When they came back to school, they all swapped stories of the holidays. Caleb wore the badge Adam had given him at every given moment, showing off how happy he was that he had such a great boyfriend. And at Quidditch matches Adam had taken to wearing full yellow, much like Joan, and waving a banner that said GO GO GO MICHAELS! Caleb loved looking up from his broom to see that banner. 

By this point, if you didn’t know that Caleb and Adam were dating, you were so far away from the rest of Hogwarts society that you might as well be dead. You would also have to have never seen Caleb and Adam together at any point after beginning to date. They constantly held hand and would kiss each other on the forehead. Well, the latter was more reserved for Caleb who could actually reach Adam’s forehead.

No one had really given them any shit for it, at least on Caleb’s side of things. The entire Quidditch team had made a pact that if anyone messed with Caleb or Adam, they would be dealing with all of them. Even Caitlin, Caleb’s kind of ex, had been fine with it. Caleb had run into her in the middle of a corridor one day.  
“Oh, hey Caitlin!” She had smiled after realising the tall guy she had just bumped into was Caleb, a very non-aggressive guy. 

“Hey Caleb! Haven’t seen you in ages,” she commented. Then she asked as casually as possible  
“How’s Adam?” Caleb looked down.  
“Oh, he’s great! Yeah, yeah, he’s great,” he said, trailing off a little towards the end. She blushed and smiled.

“You don’t need to be awkward Caleb. We’re friends. Yeah, we dated but that was last year. Besides I’m not interested in you anymore.” Caleb smiled back, still feeling a little awkward.  
“Oh, cool. Um, who?” He asked. She shook her head.  
“Don’t change the subject. I want to know how you and Adam are going. If not for you, then for my academic rivalry with him.” 

Caleb chuckled slightly at that. Adam did have a little bit of a vendetta against Caitlin. She was what he called ‘his nemesis’. What a dork. This grudge may be helped slightly by her being Caleb’s ex, which Caleb found kind of amusing.

“We’re friends, idiot. You don’t need to like fight her or anything,” he had told Adam once. Adam shook his head.  
“It’s not about that. It’s about being smarter then her.” 

Caleb decided that telling her about Adam wouldn’t be the worst thing.

“Well, like I said, it’s great. He is such a dork, honestly. And he got me this badge for Christmas, see?” He showed her. She nodded. Then he got it flying. She whistled.  
“Wow, that’s so cool. It’s stuff like this that makes you see how smart he is.” Caleb nodded and smiled. He really did love Adam so much. 

Sam started talking to them again eventually. She never told them what the problem had been, only that she was sorry for cutting them off. Caleb and Adam had accepted her apology and kept going. It was good to have Sam back. It was also good to see that she was doing better. She smiled more, made more witty jokes. She seemed more comfortable. She still sent Mark longing glances and seemed to miss those special smiles he reserved for her only, but Caleb figured it would take a while for her to see that. 

Study time came up. Caleb and Adam set apart as much study time as they could, but those set times usually turned into make out sessions. Adam would act like it was annoying and he really wanted to study but then he would keep kissing back. When they did study though, Caleb found that most of the material slipped out of his mind. He had never been good at this type of thing and that never ceased to frustrate him. 

Adam was usually good at helping, he made Caleb feel ‘green’. That was how Caleb had started referring to his emotions, with colours. And green was the one he used for feeling happy. Adam always made him feel happy and green was a colour he associated with Adam most commonly, so green it had been. But as much as Adam could help, Caleb found it getting harder and harder to keep control.

During the actual exams, he nearly snapped his quill in half when he couldn’t remember a spell. Afterwards he had lain with his head in Adam’s lap and did breathing exercises that Joan had taught his to help with stress. Adam just ran his fingers through Caleb’s hair. And so, Caleb would calm down. They did this after every exam.

And then the year was ending. Caleb didn’t want to go. Neither did Alice, unsurprisingly. She kept bugging him, asking if there was any way that she would be allowed to stay at Hogwarts. Caleb had just rolled his eyes and told her to deal with it. He found that the prospect of summer was much better once Adam had promised to visit as much as possible.

As he sat on the train, head on Adam’s shoulder, talking about nothing, he thought about how much had changed over the past year. Adam and him were now dating. Chloe had powers, which had led to him not talking to her as much. Sam had gotten really bad and now was somewhat okay. He felt uneasy, with no real reason as to why. After all, who knew what the next year would bring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yaaaaayyyyy, we finally have some idiots realising that they like each other! Hopefully nothing bad will happen that makes their relationship rocky...Anyways, next time I update it will not be a Sam chapter like you might be expecting. It will in fact be a Chloe chapter, and as we enter her fifth year, stuff goes from 0 to 100 really quick. Once again, I hope I can get the next chapter to you quickly. Please leave a kudos if you liked it or a comment if you have something to say, I love receiving both. And as always, this is where I leave you. For now.


	16. Know Things I Shouldn't Know

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, sorry for the few days late update, this was a hard chapter to write for some reason. We start seeing some of the show's canon blending into this. Like I said last time, it gets intense.   
> Enjoy!

Chloe stepped onto Platform 9 and ¾ with a wince She looked behind her to see Sam stepping out. (Wow, this place is always so awesome. Oh, Chloe isn’t looking to good.)  
“You alright?” Sam asked. Chloe shrugged.

“Yeah, it’s just, wow, there are a lot of people here.” Recently her power had been getting stronger and harder to control which meant that everyone’s thoughts just kept getting shoved into her head and she couldn’t stop it. Thankfully, over the break she had been in a house with only her mother and Sam.

During the summer, her and Sam had gotten considerably closer. Chloe had pretty much told her all her secrets, including her crush on Rose. Sam had teased her for about three days before Chloe retaliated by talking about Mark. Now Sam kept most of her thoughts inside of her head. Sam had opened up to Chloe about her parents, which had been hard for Sam but, Chloe thought, good for her.

Another thing that happened was that Sam became used to Chloe reading her thoughts and answering them out loud. Now the two of them could have a conversation where only Chloe spoke. It was really helpful for days where Sam was having a hard time and she didn’t really feel like talking much.

Sam nodded and took Chloe’s hand. They held hands a lot now. Whenever the other was feeling overwhelmed they would just make some sort of contact. 100% platonic though, as Sam was still very into Mark, and Chloe was still very into Rose. 

The same Rose who Chloe had just detected the thoughts of. (Man, this place is so crowded. Has it always been this busy here? I don’t remember. That’s strange. Ugh, I wish I could find someone, wait, is that Ma- no, not him). Chloe turned her head, trying to find Rose.   
“Chloe? Do you hear someone?” 

“Yeah, Rose, just give me a-” (Ooh Rose. I wonder if Chloe will start blushing when she sees her. She’ll definitely start grinning like an idiot. If you can hear don’t even try to deny it, you do.) Chloe rolled her eyes.  
“I do not!” Sam laughed.  
“You kinda do. It’s really adorable.”   
“Oh, shut up, you’re wor-there she is!” Chloe exclaimed pointing to where she saw Rose standing.

She tugged Sam through the crowd.  
“Rose!” Rose turned and beamed.

“Chloe!” When the two met they hugged tightly. Chloe let go of Sam’s hand to fully embrace her best friend. She realises that Sam was right. She is grinning like an idiot. Rose’s thoughts rush into her head. (Oh my god it is so good to see Chloe. I mean I did see her over the holidays, but it feels so long. I’ve missed her so much.) Chloe grinned as she pulled back.

“I’ve missed you too.” Rose blushed.  
Rose reached out to touch Chloe’s hair.  
“You got a haircut?” She asked. Chloe nodded, trying to ignore the fact that Rose’s fingers were very close to her face, and wow.   
“Do you like it? And don’t lie, I’ll know.” She added the last bit nervously. What if Rose hated it? 

Rose had a soft smile on her face.  
“It’s really nice. It…it really suits you.” The two made eye contact. Chloe could barely distinguish her own thoughts from the buzzing in her head let alone Rose’s so she had no idea of what the other girl was thinking. What Chloe was thinking was mostly, SHE LIKES MY HAIR AND SHE’S TOUCHING MY FACE AND WOW SHE’S REALLY CLOSE I DON’T THINK I CAN HANDLE THIS. 

Rose apparently seemed to realise that her hand was now on Chloe’s cheek and she dropped it. Sam took this moment to interject.  
“It’s good to see you Rose. I think I just spotted Mark and Joan, we should go over to them.” Chloe nodded.  
“Yeah, yeah let’s go.”

The train ride was different this time. Mark wasn’t there, and neither was Frank or Adam. Adam had been the only one of them to get elected as a prefect. Caleb spent most of the trip sulking about being abandoned by his boyfriend. Not out loud of course, but in his head, it seemed like everything came back to Adam.

Sam seemed to be okay. She was missing Mark a lot, so she talked with Joan. Chloe tried to stay away from Joan’s head, it was just so full. There were occasional thoughts about Annabelle, which Chloe shoved as far away from her as possible, she didn’t need to know about Joan’s odd crush or whatever it was. Apart from that, she seemed to be full of so much anxiety. And that was valid, it was her last year after all. Chloe was startled by that thought. In just a month Joan would be a legal adult. She was leaving the school after this year. That was so intense. 

Chloe was then startled by the fact that she was in her fifth year. She would be taking OWL’s this year. She barely knew what she wanted to do. Something to do with art, but there weren’t exactly subjects for that. She was okay at Transfiguration and Charms, absolutely horrible at Herbology and Potions. Pretty much the complete opposite of Rose. At least Rose knew what she wanted to do. She was going to be a Potioneer. 

The first few days of term were mostly filled with teachers telling them that OWL’s were happening, and that they needed to be prepared. Then they were hit with a wave of homework for each subject, every one due in the same week. So, that added greatly to Chloe’s stress levels. Especially, because she had to deal with everyone else having stressed thoughts. 

Then, one day, as Chloe was relaxing in her dorm, Rose walked in, and her thoughts smacked right into Chloe. Except, they weren’t just thoughts. They were memories of something that had clearly happened only moments ago. (I’m sorry. This isn’t working.) Flashes of Emily biting her lip. (I think we have to break up. I’m sorry. This isn’t working. It’s not anything you’ve done.) 

Chloe looked up to see Rose standing at the doorway, looking shaken. Her eyes were slightly red. Chloe immediately stood up.   
“Are you okay?” Chloe hoped that Rose understood that Chloe knew what had happened. Rose nodded, rubbing the corner of her eye. When she spoke, her voice was croaky.  
“Yeah. It’s just, I’d kind of seen it coming, but, it still hurt.” (She was my first girlfriend. She was amazing.) Chloe nodded.

Chloe walked over and then led Rose to her bed. She sat her down and put her arm around her shoulder.  
“If you need anything, I’m here.” Rose sniffled and laughed.  
“Thanks. You’re the best.” Chloe smiled and held Rose close. She shoved away the voice that told her ‘now that Rose doesn’t have a girlfriend, it’s your chance’. That didn’t matter now. All that mattered was Rose being okay.

They stopped spending time with Emily. She had only really hung out with them because she was dating Rose, anyways. Chloe tried her best to be the comforting friend, make sure that Rose could vent if she needed to. Rose wasn’t much of a mess, so Chloe assumed she was doing something right. And Chloe had to admit, it was really nice being able to spend more time with Rose. She allowed herself to be a little bit selfish in that regard.

Things seemed to be going well. She and her best friend went dreamwalking all the time now, they’d become really good at it actually, which meant that every night was amazing. And when Chloe wasn’t in classes, or spending one on one time with Rose, she was with the whole group. It was a little awkward because of her power at times, but she tried her best.

And then last year started repeating itself. Caleb and Adam split away from the group, spending most of their time alone. If they were with anyone else, it would be Mark. Joan started disappearing for ‘study sessions’. Chloe didn’t have to read her thoughts to know that was crap. She started avoiding Chloe’s gaze. They had never really talked about Chloe’s outburst last year. 

And then, something really strange started happening. Mark and Frank both started disappearing, both started acting weird, avoiding Chloe. Mark, well, she understood, maybe he was just not okay with the whole mind reading thing. But Frank? He was the first person she had met at this school. And even if they hadn’t been best friends, or spending oodles of time together, she still cared about him. So, it soon became that her only friends seemed to be Rose and Sam. 

The next red flag that Chloe saw came during a study lesson. She was in the library when Annabelle came in. She stormed in, making no effort to be quiet. Everyone in the vicinity looked up. She glared and them and snapped in a quiet but vicious voice

“Don’t you have something better to do?” Everyone immediately looked down. She really was terrifying.   
Chloe reached out her mind. She was curious. What was getting Annabelle in such a bad mood? What was she here for? And, if she was actually honest with herself for once, what was going on with her and Joan? When she finally tuned into Annabelle’s thoughts, nothing could have prepared her for the way they felt. They hurt.

(It’s not working. Why isn’t it working? I’ve been trying this for weeks. All the other experiments are going well, why is this the one that’s not working? I should have this figured out by now. They’ll be disappointed. And if I want to join the AM after school, I need to do this.) 

Chloe was startled so much that she pulled her mind away. Experiments? The AM? The AM were horrible, why the hell did Annabelle want to join them? What experiments was she doing? This wasn’t good. No, this wasn’t what she had bargained for at all. She paused. Maybe she should stop there. Maybe she should leave it alone. Or maybe tell Joan. One of those would be a smart option.

Chloe had never really been one for picking the smart option. She wanted answers.

So, she stood up, and as casually as possible, followed Annabelle. She made it look like she was looking for a book by pretending to look down aisles thoughtfully. Annabelle hadn’t spun around to tear her a new one yet so she figured that she must be fine. When Annabelle entered the Restricted Section, Chloe’s stomach filled with unease. Something was really not right here.

She decided to reach out to Annabelle’s thoughts from where she was standing. As she searched for them, she tried to reassure herself, ‘Annabelle is Adam’s cousin, she can’t be that bad, right?’ But she still felt uneasy.

Her mind found Annabelle’s and this time the thoughts curled around her own like smoke. (Where is that book? No one else would have taken it. I’m sure it said something about Muggleborns. And Occlumency to stop those pesky Legilimens. Like you, isn’t that right Miss Turner.) Chloe felt ice run through her body.

(Come over here Chloe. I can feel you poking around. We have to speak eventually don’t we?) Every fibre in Chloe’s body told her to run. But, against it all, she found herself walking over to where Annabelle was standing. She was leaning against a bookshelf with a cold smile on her face. The two stood at different ends of the corridor.  
“Hello Chloe.”  
“Annabelle. What do you want?” Annabelle chuckled.

“Nothing too sinister. I just wanted to check in with you. See how the Legilimency is going. You realise that some people wouldn’t like knowing that there’s someone amongst them who knows everything about them.” Annabelle paused and met Chloe’s gaze. Chloe felt the undertone rippling under the surface of Annabelle’s quiet words.  
“Is that a threat?” Annabelle laughed.

“Of course not. Unless of course, it has to be. We wouldn’t want any problems.” Chloe found her fist clenching.  
“Okay. What would constitute a problem exactly?” She asked, trying to be casual but also confident. Annabelle smiled.

“Well, if you happen to hear anything in this mind of mine, we wouldn’t want anyone knowing. Especially people like your friends.” Chloe stepped forwards.  
“You’re scared,” she claimed, trying to gain some sort of high ground. Annabelle just laughed again. 

“My dear girl. Me, scared of you? I don’t think so. You’re just a pesky mind reader. I’m one of the top students in all of Hogwarts. I don’t think I’m quite quivering in my boots.”   
She stepped away from Chloe.

“So, I believe that’s all. Remember this talk.” As Annabelle turned away Chloe spoke rashly.   
“What about Joan? Does she know about whatever is going on here?” She regretted the words as soon as Annabelle turned slowly with a mirthless expression on her face.  
“Don’t talk about things you don’t understand. And don’t tell Joan about this conversation. I’ll know.” Then she stalked into the bookshelves.

After that conversation Chloe found herself exceedingly worried about Joan. It seemed like Joan might be involved with someone who was a little more than slightly creepy. And of course, there was the whole question of how on earth did Annabelle know that Chloe was reading her mind? Chloe tried to ignore the sneaking thought that maybe, just maybe, it was Joan.

The next red flag she noticed was with Mark. This one, it took help from Sam to figure out. When she hadn’t been seeing Mark as much recently she just assumed that he was uncomfortable with being around her because she could read his mind, but then, she discovered it wasn’t just her he was avoiding. 

She was having a night time talk with Sam. The clock hanging on Sam’s dorm room stated that it was 12:48am. Sam had sent a note to Chloe’s room at about 12:20am. She had been dreamwalking with Rose when she had felt something touching her face in the real world. She had woken up, accidently dragging Rose with her. They had sat up, groggy and unsure of what was going on. 

Chloe had lit her wand and opened the note. It read: ‘Chloe. I had a nightmare. Can you please come to my dorm room? I need you.’ The handwriting was messy and there was a small splotch in the corner which Chloe suspected was a tear drop. Chloe had stood up and made for the door, whispering to the half awake and very confused Rose that she needed to go. 

After Chloe had calmed Sam down enough they started talking, Chloe holding Sam’s hand to anchor her. Which led to the conversation topic of Mark. Chloe had brought him up in a teasing way, hoping to cheer Sam up. Sam just frowned.

“I haven’t talked to him much lately. He’s been, well, distant.” Chloe frowned.  
“I’ve noticed that. But I thought it was just me though.”   
Sam sighed and shook her head sadly.

“No, not just you. Even when I’m talking to him, it’s like he’s a shell of the person I know him to be. He doesn’t tell me anything. I feel like I’m losing him, and I can’t do that. I can’t lose Mark.” At this point Sam had started crying again. Chloe held her and stroked her hair. But in her mind worry started to rise.

The next time she saw Mark she watched him carefully. His eyes looked empty. His smile seemed forced. He constantly looked like there was somewhere else that he wanted to be, like he was being dragged by an invisible thread. She noticed the way he stared at her warily, never making eye contact, always as far away from her as possible. She tried reading his mind but there was something wrong. She couldn’t find his thoughts.

After finding out that Mark was acting weird to everyone, she started worrying about Frank. He had been avoiding her, that much she knew already. But if there was more to it then just stress, or not liking her powers. What if he was in a similar position to Mark and she just hadn’t noticed it yet? That worried her. So, she decided that communication would be a good thing here. 

She casually mentioned to Frank in passing that they should do some painting together. When he agreed, she set a time and place. He looked confused when she answered so quickly.  
“Seems like you were planning this already,” he commented. She shrugged.

“Well, it just feels like we have spent time together in forever. I like having you as my friend.” He smiled at her warmly. Chloe searched his face for the blankness on Mark’s. It was nowhere to be seen. All that there was were bags under his eyes. She made a mental note to ask if he was getting enough sleep.

When they were doing the painting, she waited a while before springing the investigation on him. As the started painting she made light conversation about classes and ideas for art. While she did that, she stepped into his thoughts to see if there was anything bad. It was mostly what he was saying. That and random sparks of inspiration. She liked Frank’s mind. It was quiet and relaxing. 

The first question she asked to get a little deeper was  
“So, I noticed that you look tired. Is school keeping you up?” She tried to keep her voice light, but she knew that her worry slipped through by Frank’s thoughts. (She’s worried. She worries too much about other people. Always trying to make sure the world’s the best it can be.) She smiled at that. 

“Not really. There’s studying of course but, I don’t do it too late. I try and get enough sleep so that I can pay attention in class, get work done well, that sort of thing. Although lately…” he trailed off. Chloe frowned.   
“Lately?” She prompted. Frank shook his head and sighed.

“It’s nothing.” Chloe pretended to give up. She went back to Frank’s mind. (I’m sure it’s nothing. Everyone has weird dreams. Chloe dropped that fast. Unless she’s…right.)  
“Chloe, reading my thoughts will not help. If you want an answer that bad, just ask me. You don’t have to do that.  
She put down her paintbrush.

“Sorry.” He put his down as well.  
“It’s okay, I get it. It’s easy for you to not talk and to just read.” She bit her lip. She needed to know something.   
“Does it bother you? Me reading your mind I mean?” He turned to face her. 

“It doesn’t bother me enough that I want you to stop it. Yes, I wish you would just talk to me, but you can’t help it.” She sighed and realised that she had been unconsciously holding in a lot of tension.

“That’s good.”  
He nodded and folded his arms.

“Now, do you still want to ask me about what I said?” He said it calmly, without a trace of annoyance in his voice. Chloe wondered why she hadn’t been spending as much time with him as usual. He was super cool.

“Yeah. And, I hope you don’t mind but I heard something in your thoughts about dreams?” He nodded slowly, looked away from Chloe for a moment. He looked almost worried. What type of dreams were these?

“Okay, so, since about, I don’t know, start of term maybe, I’ve been having these weird dreams. But, they’re not like fully formed. They’re flashes, feelings. Like memories that I’m not supposed to have. And every morning I wake up feeling tired. I figured, well maybe it’s just me being weird, but then I started noticing things different around my dorm room. Things that I swore I left one way, but they’ve changed positions. I asked the boys in my dorm, but they don’t know anything.”

Chloe stepped forwards, frowning.   
“What’s in these flashes?” She asked cautiously. He frowned and shook his head.  
“It’s blurry, I don’t quite remember anything specific. I just know that in the dreams I’m still at Hogwarts, and other students are there. There’s one person I remember very firmly.” He said with a frown. 

“Who?” She pressed. He bit his lip and paused, as if it was hard for him to say.  
“That scary girl from Slytherin, who’s friends with Joan.” Chloe felt a chill run through her. Annabelle, again.   
Frank nodded, and then added, as an afterthought.

“I think I saw Mark once.” Chloe felt her stomach flip. Mark and Annabelle in the same recurring weird dream? There had to be a connection. But she couldn’t tell Frank. He had too much on his hands right now.

The next person she noticed being weird, well, weirder than normal, was Damien. Usually, she made it one of her life goals to ignore him because he hated her, and she hated him. So, it wasn’t her fault that they interacted. No, strangely, it was Mark’s fault. 

She had decided to talk to Mark alone. If Sam couldn’t get herself to do it, and Chloe wanted to know what was going on, then she needed to take the initiative. In a move that could be considered, well, slightly stalkerish, she followed Mark when he left the table to go ‘study’.

It had been a few minutes and she thought that she was doing well. That was until of course, she turned a corner and ran straight into an angry Mark.  
“What are you doing Chloe?” It took her a moment to regain her composure and think of something to say. Deciding that a lie would get her nowhere in this situation, she cut straight to the truth.

“I wanted to talk to you. You’ve been avoiding everyone recently and I just-”  
“So you decided to stalk me? Real smart Chlo.” Chloe felt a sharp pain at hearing her nickname used so angrily, and by someone who wasn’t Rose. It felt wrong.   
“It wasn’t exactly like you were going to talk to me anyways.” 

“Well maybe you should respect the fact that I don’t want to talk to you!” (Why does she have to be poking around in this? Can’t she just leave me alone? I wonder if Sam put her up to this. God, she’s going to ruin everything.)

“Stop reading my thoughts! I can see it on your face, so stop it!” He shouted at her, the anger in his eyes the most expression she’s seen on his face in weeks. Not one to cower quickly, she raises her voice too.

“Well maybe if you’d just talk to me I wouldn’t have to-”  
“-Mark! What are you doing?” Chloe broke of half shout to stare at the newcomer. Damien. And Mark was smiling at him.

She remembered well that Damien had asked Mark out at the end of last year, and that he hadn’t taken Mark’s rejection all that well. She also knew that Mark didn’t really like Damien all that much, describing him as ‘kind of creepy, if I’m perfectly honest’. So, seeing Mark and Damien together without any awkwardness, and seeing Mark almost looking happy to see Damien was really unsettling. 

“Chloe,” Damien says, disgust obvious in his voice. Her mind is a mix of confusion and anger.  
“Damien? What are you doing here?” He gave her a snide smile.

“I’m here to meet Mark. We’re, uh, study buddies. He was meant to meet me in the library but when he didn’t turn up I decided it was best to go looking for him. And then what do I happen to find but Miss Chloe Turner, yelling at him.”

Something is really not right here. Mark and Damien being study buddies? There’s no way. Mark would never. He hates Damien. Damien’s weird and creepy and a stalker and a jerk and-

And he’s staring at Mark like Mark is everything.  
And Mark is staring back. Smiling. Happy. 

She has no idea how to react to this discovery. Is it a discovery? Is she right? Or is she reading into this too much? Maybe they’re just friends.   
She nearly laughs at that thought. They are very clearly not just friends.

Damien taps Mark on the shoulder.  
“Why don’t you head on over to the library? I want to talk to Chloe alone.” Mark nods dutifully and walks away. The moment he’s turned the corner Damien turns back to her.  
“You stay away from him. He does not want to deal with you.” She stares right at Damien.

“What is going on between you two?”  
He almost snarls at her.  
“That is none of your business.” Then he turns on his heel and stalks away. 

Chloe tried to leave it alone. She really did. But she had always been an inquisitive person. She liked knowing things. And with her new power, well, if it wasn’t going to stop, then she might as well use it for something useful. And she wanted to know what was going on with Mark, Frank, Joan, Damien, and Annabelle. So, she started reading people’s minds, trying to put the pieces together. 

So, if Frank had told her what he knew, and Mark wouldn’t talk to her, and Damien and Annabelle hated her, then she needed to talk to Joan. Maybe she could get some information about Annabelle out of her. Except for the whole problem of, well, they weren’t exactly close anymore. So, if she was going to do this, it might need to be a surprise attack.

She decided to approach Joan when she was studying. She felt sort of bad about this whole thing. After all, she considered Joan a sort of friend and she didn’t exactly want to stalk her friends. But something was going on here that just wasn’t right. And she needed to do something about it.

She entered the library about ten minutes after she knew Joan had. She sat down at a table and opened up the books that she had brought as a cover. Who knew, maybe she would end up getting engrossed in her Charms homework and she wouldn’t have to deal with the pressure of talking to Joan. She knew that was cowardly of her the moment she thought it, so she pushed it away. She was going to talk to Joan. 

Deciding that she’d better find Joan in the room before she started, she looked up. It was quite a nasty shock to see Joan sitting across the room, with none other than Annabelle. She bit her lip. Well, that threw in a wrench in her plans. She half considered leaving and trying again another time but she threw that thought away. She could wait to see if Annabelle left and then talk to Joan. And anyways, maybe she could just read their minds. 

She picked a quill and twirled it between her fingers. It really had been a mess of a…well, term. She really should be focusing on school. It was the big OWL year after all. Sam had done reasonably well though, and considering she had spent most of the year in a terrible state, Chloe figured she should be fine. Though Sam was a little bit smarter than Chloe. Just like Rose.

Nope. Not thinking about. She was not here to sit and daydream about her best friend. Although it was worth noticing that Rose had been worried about her. Saying that she had seemed ‘really distracted recently’. Chloe had just smiled and blew it off with an excuse about it being a mixture of the thousands of thoughts in her head at all times and it just being her weirdness.

She shook herself. No. Stop getting distracted. The only thoughts you need to be focusing on are Joan’s and Annabelle’s. So, she reached out. 

Most of the thoughts in the library were focused on homework. (If you add three pinches of…) (The caster will need to stand with their foot…) (The trolls have always been…). Some were a little more scattered. (What the hell is a bezoar?) (Which one is the mouse to teacup spell again? I’m never going to pass.) (This is stupid. I hate NEWT’s.) 

She frowned. Jeez this was a library. It should definitely not be this hard to find them. They were right over there, maybe if she just listened over there. Nothing. She nearly stamped her foot in frustration. Why was this so hard? She reached out again. Nothing…wait no. There was some staticky sound. What the hell? 

She pushed forwards, and suddenly, Joan’s voice was in her head. (Wadsworth is such a stupid name. I can’t believe I’m dating such an idiot.) She winced. So, despite all her hoping and praying that they were not dating, they were. She sighed. Well, at least she could hear Joan now. What the hell had that static been anyways?

“Chloe Turner.” Chloe shot her head up, hoping that she was mislead in who the speaker had been. But no. The person who had just called out her name, was unfortunately, a very annoyed looking Annabelle. 

“Yes?” She was confused and a little bit scared. Her last encounter with Annabelle hadn’t exactly gone well.   
“Can you come over here please?” Chloe knew that she didn’t really have a choice. She tried to ignore they way everyone had looked up when Annabelle spoke, and how they were now looking at her like she had done something wrong. She also tried to ignore the way Joan was looking at her. Betrayed and angry. 

She sat down across from where Annabelle and Joan were. Joan was avoiding her gaze now, but Annabelle was fixing her with a cool gaze. Without looking away she spoke in an authoritative voice to the rest of the library.

“You can go back to your work now.” Chloe heard everyone immediately snapping away from their conversation. Annabelle sighed.  
“You just had to try it didn’t you. And don’t try denying it. I felt the protection spell break. So, tell me what exactly were you trying to do, and what did you hear?” Chloe swallowed, finding it increasingly hard to breathe. And her mind was not crowded with thoughts from everyone in the library, but this time, about her. 

(She’s so dead. Annabelle is going to kill her.) (I wonder what she did to get Annabelle so pissed off?) (What are they talking about? Why can’t I hear them? There’s no way they can be talking that quiet.)   
“Well Chloe? Don’t be shy. And don’t worry about the other patrons of this place. They can’t hear a thing we’re saying.” 

Her curiosity was piqued, as well as her desire to delay Annabelle’s questions.  
“How do you-”  
“A simple spell Miss Turner, now I suggest that you stop delaying this.” Well, it didn’t exactly look like she was going to be getting out of this one. Best come clean with as little information as possible.

“I just wanted to know if you two were actually together.” Annabelle scoffed and waved a hand.  
“Oh please Miss Turner, you already knew. That’s a weak lie, try again.” Chloe bit her lip. Annabelle seemed to be getting increasingly scary.  
“Okay fine. I wanted to know what you were doing. What I read in your thoughts last time made me curious.” Well, there goes the element of surprise.  
Annabelle shook her head.

“Miss Turner. You should know better than using your power for bad. I’m not doing anything bad, I’m just doing some simple study on Muggleborns. Harmless. Isn’t that right Joan?” Chloe felt her stomach twist unpleasantly as Joan looked up.

“That’s exactly right. What Annabelle has been doing is absolutely none of your business.”  
Annabelle nodded and then smiled like she’d just have an idea. 

“I think I’m going to go for a quick walk you know, stretch my legs. Chloe, you stay here with Joan. I’m sure there’s just so much you want to talk about.” Annabelle stood up swiftly and walked away, her shoes clicked powerfully on the floor. Chloe turned back to Joan, who still wouldn’t meet her eyes.

She decided to talk first, maybe she would be able to make some headway.  
“Joan, I’m-”  
“-Sorry? Sorry for using your powers on me and my girlfriend to discover secrets? When did you decide that it would be okay?” 

“Joan, I was worried. What I read in her thoughts seemed really scary, and the way she’s been treating me has been-”  
“-She isn’t hurting anyone, you got the wrong idea."  
"Are you sure? Some of the stuff I've heard has really worried me." Joan exhaled angrily.  
"It's nothing. And she doesn’t particularly like other people all that much. It took a while for me to get close to her. And just,” Joan sighed and shook her head.

“I think you should leave okay? Just go away and stop whatever this is.” Chloe nodded, stopping tears coming to her eyes.

“Okay.”  
“Good.” 

Chloe stood up, went back to her bench, and gathered her things. Just as she exited, she ran into Annabelle, who smiled at her like a shark.  
“Well, it seems you and Joan had a nice conversation. And I’m sure you’ll take some things into consideration. Remember our last chat.” The moment she had finished speaking Chloe knew, that whatever Annabelle was doing, it was definitely not harmless. 

Her next discovery came completely by accident. She was just wandering around the castle, thinking, trying to just get some space. She knew it was getting closer to curfew but she also knew that the prefects patrolling that night were both in a relationship, as learned through a very unpleasant experience hearing their thoughts, and would probably be making out in some darkened corner somewhere, so no need to hurry. 

She was turning the facts of this weird mess of a situation over in her head. She still couldn’t believe that Joan was dating Annabelle, and was somehow aware of whatever Annabelle was doing, although maybe not all of it. And then of course there was Mark, and his weird connection to Damien. What the hell was going on with that?

As she was pondering all of this, she noticed some thoughts getting louder. She ignored it at first, it was probably just some kids late back from the library or something. But when she heard the words she had to pause and wrinkle her nose. (Wow he’s so pretty, so amazing, I love him so much. He’s such a good kisser.) Ugh. She hadn’t expected the prefects to be making out this early on in the night.

Then, as she was walking away, one word found its way into her mind. (Damien.) She froze, and started paying attention to the voice. She realised now that there was only one, a male. Her sudden realisation felt to her like it was ice water poured down her back. The voice was Mark’s. The two boys making out in some corner, were Damien and Mark. Oh shit.

She had no idea what to do. So, she stood there, dumbly, as she processed this new information. Damien and Mark were making out in a corner, which probably meant that Damien and Mark were dating, though she couldn’t be sure, maybe they just had an arrangement? Two things that she couldn’t get past were the fact that Mark had actively turned down Damien last year, and that Mark didn’t seem like himself.

She was so lost in thought that she didn’t notice that Damien and Mark had moved. Moved, specifically, out of the corner, and into the corridor where she was standing with a shocked look on her face. 

The two sides noticed each other at the same time. Damien and Mark were holding hands, they had both been wearing happy expressions, but as soon as they saw her, the light in their eyes died. She knew immediately then that, yes, they were dating, this was not just a fling. She could see that they also knew that she knew.   
Damien’s face turned to pure rage. 

“What the fuck are you doing?” He snarled at her, stepping towards her. As he moved, she moved back instinctively. She knew that there was absolutely no way for this to end well. She hoped that Mark wouldn’t hurt her, seeing as once they had been friends, but she knew that Damien would not hesitate.   
“Answer me!” He shouted at her. She saw Mark reaching out a hand to grab onto Damien’s arm. Damien faltered for a moment but then continued to glare at her. She stumbled out a reply.

“I was just walking.” Damien scoffed.  
“Oh yeah, and you just happened to find us right? I’m sure you’re telling the truth.” He took another step. For the first time Mark spoke out.

“Damien!” Damien turned his head to look at Mark. Chloe saw that Mark actually looked somewhat scared of Damien.  
“Don’t hurt her. Just do your thing and let’s leave.” Damien seemed to be contemplating something. Chloe stared, frozen and full of horror. What was Damien’s ‘thing’?   
“Okay,” Damien spoke before turning back to her. A bit of the rage had faded from her face, leaving a cold determination. She wanted to run but she felt like that would not help her at all here. He pulled out his wand.

“Damien-”  
“-Quiet,” he told her harshly. Then he spoke again, this time with a spell.  
“Imperius.”  
She felt a warm sensation run through her body. For a moment, it seemed like everything was going to be okay, she could just leave, and no one would need to know about this, and she could let them do their thing, and it would be fine and-

-Wait. No. It wasn’t fine. Damien had just used an Unforgivable Curse on her. Damien and Mark were together and she needed to tell someone. Damien frowned at her. Not angrily, just confused.

“Why didn’t that work?” She stared back at him, confused.  
“What did you do?” He asked, looking up at her with a worried expression. Wait. Damien worried?   
“Why isn’t it working?” He yelled, shaking his wand like a child throwing a fit. Mark grabbed onto Damien. 

“Okay. You go. I’ll talk to her.” Damien looked like he wanted to argue but then he just nodded and walked away, leaving Chloe with Mark.  
“Chloe,” he began but she cut him off.  
“Did you see that? What he just tried to do to me?”

“Chloe I know you’re scared-”  
“-And what? You’re not? Look up Mark! This is not good and-”  
“Chloe!” He shouted. She stopped. He didn’t look angry. He looked tired.

She decided that argument here would not help her. So, she decided to listen. To his words, not his thoughts, as she had a feeling that they wouldn’t tell her anything.   
“Listen. I know you’re probably confused. But I love Damien, and he loves me. But I’m just not ready to tell other people that. So, please, don’t tell anyone.” 

Chloe took a deep breath. This was really not what she was expecting.  
“Can I ask a question?” He bit his lip.  
“You can ask but I don’t know if I can answer.”  
“Why did you turn Damien down last year if you love him?” He shook his head.

“I didn’t love him then.” She pressed again.  
“When did you start loving him?” He shook his head and stepped back.

“No. I’m not answering that.” She should have left it there. She should have done many things different though. She seemed to be in a bad habit of picking the wrong decision.  
“And why have you been acting so weirdly? And, I’m sorry, but how can you love someone who just tried to use an Imperius curse on someone? This doesn’t make sense.”

Mark was shaking his head quickly now, looking panicked.  
“No, no, no stop asking questions.”  
“Why? Because you don’t have a good answer? Help me understand this.”

“No, stop it. You’re being like her.”  
“Like who?”  
“Wadsworth!” He snapped looking up at her, shaking, with an intense look in his eye.

She froze. Wadsworth. The same name that Joan had thought. The name that she had thought in relation to Annabelle. Then she had a thought.   
“Have you been having the dreams too?” She asked quietly. The look of terror in Mark’s eyes said more than a word. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but nothing came out.   
She nodded quickly.

“Okay. Okay, I’m going to leave. I won’t tell anyone.” Then she turned around and walked as quick as humanly possible to get away from him. She expected him to call out. But he just stood there, looking terrified. 

She felt like getting a big board and some red string to help her figure all of this out. But, as red string and a board would be hard to source, she decided on writing it out. First she wrote down everyone’s names. Joan. Mark. Damien. Annabelle/Wadsworth? And Frank. Then, she drew lines connecting them. Joan was Mark’s sister, a disliker of Damien, dating Annabelle, and an acquaintance with Frank. Mark was Joan’s brother, dating Damien, having the dreams about Wadsworth. Damien hated Joan, was dating Mark, hated Annabelle, and probably Frank too. 

Annabelle was dating Joan, if she was Wadsworth, then she was in Mark’s dreams, questioning him a lot, hated Damien, and was also in Frank’s dreams. Frank was friends with Joan, and Mark, who was in his dreams, he didn’t like Damien, and he had seen Annabelle in his dreams. This led to two conclusions.

One, that Annabelle, Mark, and Frank had seemingly been in each other’s dreams, which meant that they weren’t just dreams. Two, that Joan didn’t know about the dreams, because if she knew that Annabelle had been doing something bad to Mark in his dream, she would not be dating Annabelle. 

She sat back with a frown. What the hell was all this dream business? Because there was no way that these dreams were just naturally occurring, there had to be magic going on here. But how to figure out what magic? A voice in her head wondered if maybe she should leave this alone. She pushed it away. She had gone this far, right? Might as well finish.   
Then an idea hit her, and for the first time in what felt like a while, she smiled. If she wanted to know about these dreams, she’d better go to the dream expert. Rose. After all, it was about time that she stopped doing this by herself. She needed her best friend.  
+++  
“Woah,” Rose exhaled shaking her head, as if she didn’t quite believe what she had just been told. Chloe bit her lip and nodded.  
“Yeah.” Rose looked at Chloe.  
“And you want me, to go into Mark, Frank, and Annabelle’s dreams, so we can see what’s going on?” Chloe nodded.

“Yes. Well, maybe not Annabelle. If she could tell that I was reading her mind, then who knows if we’ll be able to dreamwalk with her.” Rose nodded.  
“Yeah, right, that makes sense.” 

Rose still looked worried and the absolute last thing that Chloe wanted to do was pressure her so she decided to reassure her.  
“Listen, if you don’t want to do this, that’s totally fine, I can figure something else out to do,” Rose shook her head, cutting Chloe off.

“No, no, it’s not that. It’s just that, well, you’ve been doing all this, without telling anyone, and you think it could possibly be dangerous, and well, I’m worried for you Chloe.”   
Chloe was taken aback slightly.

“You know I’d make sure that nothing happened to me, that I’d be safe?” Rose laughed and met Chloe’s eyes.  
“We both know that’s a lie. You wanted to know something and nothing could stop you finding it out. You’ve always been like that. And you’d always risk yourself for the people you care about. And I care about you, a lot. So, yeah I was worried.”

There’s a pause where Rose takes a deep breath, looking away from Chloe, who has forgotten how to breathe. She knew that Rose meant it in a best friend way, but hearing that Rose was worried about her and that she cared for her ‘a lot’ still felt nice. Rose turned back to Chloe.

“But, if you’re dedicated to this, then yeah, I’m going to help. You need me.” Chloe beamed at Rose, and without thinking, hugged her tightly. It may have set her on fire just a bit but Chloe couldn’t find it in herself to care. She was going to get to the bottom of this, her best friend right at her side.

They decide to go dreamwalking that very night. No time like the present, right? Before they go up to their dorms, they make sure that Mark is in his. They don’t want to miss their opportunity because Mark felt like a late night. But, he enters his dorm before curfew, and they don’t see him leave again. 

It takes Chloe forever to fall asleep. She can hear Rose softly breathing in the bed over from her, and she knows that Rose is definitely asleep. But she just can’t put her mind to rest. Because, as much as she wants to know all these things, she’s scared. 

Scared, that it will actually be something terrible, and her friends are in danger, and it’s going to be up to her to save them. Because, while she has the superpowers, she doesn’t think she has the bravery or the confidence of a hero. She doesn’t trust herself to save them. So, she hopes like hell that it’s just a funny coincidence and closes her eyes.

She should have known better than to hope for the best.

When Chloe entered their shared dreamworld, Rose was sitting on an armchair in the Hufflepuff common room. She looked nervous.  
“Hey,” Chloe called out. Rose looked up in relief.

“Oh good you’re here. I was getting worried there for a second,” she said with a nervous laugh. Chloe stepped forwards and took Rose’s hand.  
“It’s okay. We’re going to be okay.” Rose nodded a few times before taking a steadying breath and smiling.   
“You’re right. Let’s go.”

The first one of the two they are going to enter the dreams of is Mark, as he is closest to them. Rose turned towards the boy’s dormitories and walked up the stairs, Chloe on her heels. They stopped in front of the one marked 6th Years. 

“This is the one. Obviously, I can’t enter, but, I should be able to sense their dreams. From there we can step into Mark’s head.”

As Rose concentrated on finding Mark’s dream, Chloe bounced on the heels of her feet. This was going to be weird. She wondered what it would be like in Mark’s dreams. She hoped sincerely that he was not dreaming about Damien. That would be gross. Thankfully, after Chloe had told Rose about Mark and Damien, she had decided to check the feeling of his dream before they stepped into it.

Rose was frowning and tilting her head. Chloe frowned too.  
“What’s wrong?” She asked. Rose shook her head.

“It’s weird. I can feel all the other sixth year boys, but I can’t feel Mark. It’s like he’s not even in there.” Chloe felt the first strains of panic in her chest at this statement.  
“What? No, no, he’s in there, keep checking,” she told Rose, although it felt like she was reassuring herself mostly. Rose shook her head again, this time looking at Chloe with worry.

“No, I can’t feel him. He’s not in there.” Chloe started wracking her brains.   
“We saw him go into his dorms, right?” Rose worried her lip between her teeth.  
“Yeah, we did, he could have left?”   
Chloe shook her head.

“When I fell asleep it was around 11o’clock. If he’s out, then he is breaking curfew by a fair bit. No, there’s no reason for him not to be in there.” Rose started fiddling with the end of her sleeve, looking as perplexed and worried as Chloe felt. Chloe’s stomach currently felt like it was full of eels. Where was Mark?  
“Well, let’s go to Frank’s dorm, or well, find his dream.” Rose nodded.

“Yeah, yeah, sure, let’s do that.” Chloe’s heart clenched as they left. 

Rose couldn’t find Frank’s dream. She’d been trying for nearly five minutes now, but while she could feel the dreams of all the other boys in his dorm, she couldn’t find his. Chloe felt like she was going to throw up. 

“There’s no way this is a co-incidence, right?” Rose asked. Chloe shook her head, suddenly remembering how Frank had described the dreams. (They’re flashes, feelings. Like memories that I’m not supposed to have. And every morning I wake up feeling tired. I figured, well maybe it’s just me being weird, but then I started noticing things different around my dorm room. Things that I swore I left one way, but they’ve changed positions.) 

When this was paired with the fact that they couldn’t find either boy in their beds, it left one option.   
The dreams weren’t dreams.   
They were actually happening. 

Chloe’s mind started putting together everything. Mark’s panicked expression. The way Frank struggled with telling her. Annabelle’s thoughts. The ones about experiments. How Annabelle could block Chloe’s thoughts. The way that Annabelle’s eyes followed them like they were barely human. How Annabelle believed that The AM were good. And that they hated Muggleborn’s unless they were ‘special’. 

And then one final thing.   
Both Frank and Mark were Muggleborn. 

Shit.

“Chloe? Chloe, are you okay?” Rose’s words felt like they were coming through water. Everything felt shaky. Chloe couldn’t breathe. If Annabelle was still adhering to the view of The AM, then her friends were in danger. Experiments. Annabelle had been thinking about experiments, which meant she was experimenting on her friends, and what if one of them got hurt or-

“Chloe!” She heard Rose shout. Then her eyes split open and she shot up, breathing hard, mostly gasping. Everything felt numb. She had never lost connection from a dream before. Never. Somewhere in the back of her mind she registered what was happening. It was a panic attack. She was having a panic attack. 

What if Annabelle hurt one of them? Hurt one of them badly? Was Joan in on this? What if Joan was as bad as Annabelle? But Mark. Surely, she wouldn’t participate knowing that her brother was involved. But what if she was?

She heard a distant voice. Rose. It had to be Rose. She tried to focus on her voice but everything was spinning. She felt like she was going to be sick.   
“Chloe! Chloe, I need you to listen to my voice. Just listen to my voice. Focus.” Chloe tried her best, breathing in deeply, trying to remember how she had helped Sam over the summer when she had bad days. 

Her heart was still racing, she still felt sick, but now she could hear Rose. She tried to force out some words but what came out was just louder than a gasp.  
“I c-can’t-t d-d-d,” she stammered, feeling clammy. Rose nodded and bent down, some way away from Chloe.

“Okay, I want you to count down backwards from 100.” Chloe remembered this technique.  
She started counting breathily, sometimes stopping to make sure she didn’t choke. By the time she got down to one though she had stopped shaking and her breathing got easy. Her mouth tasted like bile, and her stomach churned. Rose had moved forwards and had spread her arm around Chloe’s shoulders.

“Chloe?” Chloe swallowed, her mouth dry.  
“I know what’s happening.” Rose nodded.

“I think I know too. They aren’t dreams, are they?” Chloe shook her head.  
“No, they aren’t dreams. Annabelle is doing something to them. The only question is where.” 

Rose rubbed the back of her neck. The room was dark, only lit by Rose’s wand on the floor, but Chloe could still see her eyes perfectly. They were so beautiful. Chloe had always been more of a sculptor than a painter, but she wanted to paint Rose’s eyes. Maybe it was the fatigue, or just the stress of the situation, but Chloe found those words slipping out from her mouth.

“I want to paint your eyes. They’re pretty.” Rose paused, obviously confused.  
“What?” She asked, an nervous smile pulling at the corner of her mouth. Chloe laughed quietly, and wiped her face on the edge of her sleeve.   
“Sorry, I’m just really tired.” Rose laughed and nodded.  
“Yeah, me too.” A silence fell over the two girls. 

Rose was the first to speak. When she did, it was in an unsure voice.  
“So, what now?” Chloe knew what she meant. What to do about Annabelle. She bit her lip and then made up her mind.

“Tomorrow we go looking for her. I think maybe we should bring Sam into this. She'd want to know. We need to find out whatever is going on. We need to be sure that this is bad.” They both knew that it was. Chloe could see it on Rose’s face.

“Well, confirm it. Because once we have confirmation, we need to go to the school about this.” Rose seemed shocked for a moment before she nodded in agreement.  
“Yeah, you’re right. It’s the only thing to do.” Chloe sighed, hoping that somehow this worked out.  
“The only thing to do.”

The next afternoon after classes were finished, the two of them dragged Sam from her relaxing time with Caleb, Adam, and Frank. They seemed to be having a wizard chess match and Sam wasn’t exactly happy to be leaving it.  
“Come on guys, I nearly had Adam I swear.” She looked at their expressions and her annoyance faded.

“Chloe? What’s wrong?” Chloe shook her head.  
“We’ll talk when we get there.”

There was silence for the rest of the walk to their destination, although Sam’s thoughts were full of several different theories about what was going on. When they came to their destination, which was the Room of Requirement, it was different from the time that Sam had brought Chloe there. It was a lot smaller, and newspaper reports about The AM lined the walls. It never failed to impress Chloe just how well this room could suit itself to everyone’s needs.

Sam turned and folded her arms.  
“Okay, you two are scaring me. What happened?” Rose looked at Chloe.  
“You’d better explain it. You’ve been doing this from the beginning.” Chloe tried to gather her thoughts to get some sort of coherent explanation but Sam was really starting to freak out. (Is someone dead? Is someone hurt? Did they kill someone? Did Chloe find out some deep dark secret murder plot about all of us?)

Chloe held a hand out.  
“Sam, hey, can you please just, slow down a little?” Sam nodded too quickly, her eyes still wide and panicked.  
“Yeah, sure.” Thankfully, Sam did slow her thoughts down enough so that Chloe could begin her explanation.

She started off with what she had heard from Annabelle. Then she moved onto Frank’s dream. When Chloe mentioned Mark, she had to get Sam to chill out her thoughts again. She wondered if this had been a good idea, because Sam would nearly definitely freak out, but it was too late now to reconsider.

She left everything about Mark and Damien to the end. When she finally got to it, Sam pretty much straight up refused it.  
“No, there’s no way, I don’t believe it, Chloe, you must have seen something else, there is no way that Mark would ever, I mean I know he’s bisexual, but Damien? He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t.” 

“Sam,” Chloe started but Sam was really starting to panic now.  
“I mean, he turned him down, he wouldn’t, I know he’s been acting weird recently but he wouldn’t date Damien.” As Sam talked, Chloe noticed her fingers going to the time turner that still hung around her neck. 

“Sam!” She warned. Sam looked down and realised what she was doing.

“Oh.” She dropped the time turner and then collapsed onto one of the armchairs. Chloe stepped forwards and slowly explained everything else that was going on. Sam just stared into the distance blankly. When Chloe was finished she moved away to where Rose had been standing, somewhat awkwardly.

Rose reached out a hand and wrapped it around Chloe’s. Chloe had pause for a moment to make sure that she wasn’t dreaming, and then she slowly entwined her fingers with Rose’s. Rose’s thoughts didn’t come into Chloe’s mind in full sentences. Instead it was like Chloe just became aware of what Rose was thinking. She was happy. She felt calm. She was thinking about how she was glad that Chloe was still here through all the strangeness. Chloe smiled, despite the fact that she was standing in a room with one of her friends, whom she had just informed about a secret experimentation plot at their school.

After some time, Sam pushed herself up.  
“Shit,” she stated simply. Rose nodded.  
“Yeah.” Chloe laughed. Sam shook her head, probably still working through all the facts in her head.

“Okay. So, Annabelle, or Wadsworth or whatever, is experimenting with people at night and making them think that they’re dreaming it all. Mark and Frank are two of these people, and Joan might know about this. Also, Damien is doing something shady that may or may not be related to all of this. Is that it?” Chloe nodded.  
“That’s the essentials of it.”  
Sam nodded.

“Okay, so what do we do about it?” Chloe took a deep breath. It seemed to take a lot of courage to say something during the day that she had said so calmly at night.  
“We get evidence that this is bad and then we show the school. Hopefully, they can stop it.” Sam nodded.  
“Okay. So, tonight?”   
Chloe nodded.

“Yes. There is the slight problem of finding her base of operations but I have a few ideas. We can just keep checking out spots.” Sam nodded.  
“Okay. We should split up and then send a message if we find it.” Chloe nodded.  
“Sounds like a good idea.” They all smiled, feeling like they could do something about this problem. They could do anything.

That night they waited until they knew all prefects would have given up and gone to bed. Sam had snuck into the Hufflepuff dorms with them so that it would be easier for them. When they went their separate ways, Rose went to the Forbidden Section of the Library, Sam went to the Shrieking Shack, some old haunted place outside Hogsmeade, and Chloe went to the school dungeons. She felt more awake then she ever had in her life, adrenaline running through her body. 

She did a run through of the dungeons. Creepy, cold, dark, but empty. She was almost about to give up and head to the Room of Requirement, their rendezvous spot, when she heard something. Static. And she remembered what she had heard when she had been trying to read Joan’s mind. A cold thrill ran through her body. This was it. 

She turned her head, trying to find the source. Not towards the ceiling, good, she didn’t want to go searching more. Not right underneath her, it was…left, in the corner. She moved to the left concentrating on the static, hoping that Annabelle wouldn’t notice that she was listening in. She really wanted the element of surprise here.

She followed the static to the left corner of the room. She felt around a bit, hoping for some sort of secret door. No such luck. She walked up and down the walls connecting the corner, running her fingers over every bump, hoping to trigger something. Nothing. She wanted to scream. She was so close to finding this. The static was there, but where were the people?

Suddenly, she heard footsteps, and thoughts came into her head. Not from where the static was though, from where the entrance into the dungeons were. Shit. People. As quickly and as quietly as she could, she ducked around to a different room. She tried to concentrate on the thoughts. Two people. One had very firm thoughts. (Jeez, this kid walks so damn slowly. Would Wadsworth get pissed if I kicked him or something? That wouldn’t shake the trance, right?) 

The other’s thoughts were slow, and distant, as if were being whispered to her from across a crowded room. (Cold…tired…pyjamas…tired.) They were asleep Chloe realised, putting another piece into place. That, or a trance. She didn’t dare look as the two entered the room but once they reached the corner she peeked around, watching how to get in. She focused on the awake of the two’s thoughts.

(Alrightio so it’s just this thing here, and here, then shit where’s my wand. I remembered it right? Oh yes, it’s there. Okay tap there and there and that should-boom.) There was a click and a segment of the wall disappeared. The awake one led the sleeping boy through. The leader seemed to be a sixth or seventh year, the asleep one looked younger than Chloe. Maybe third year?

Once they were both gone and the wall had reappeared. Chloe snuck out from her hiding place to copy the actions of the boy. She found that she could now see the places that needed to be hit. Good. She copied his actions as well as possible. Then, the wall disappeared. 

She remembered Rose and Sam and quickly whipped out a piece of paper. On it she scribbled ‘It’s in the dungeons. Don’t follow me, it’s a secret passageway. Stay there.’ Then, she entered the secret room, hoping beyond hopes that no one would see her.

The passage was lit by torches, burning brightly, and a little too closely for comfort. It felt uncomfortably warm, and somewhat claustrophobic in the passage but Chloe kept moving. The passage turned out to not actually be a passage but rather, a staircase, curling downwards like the coils of a snake. She moved slowly, trying not to make a sound.   
The static was still their and it was getting louder, but there was also now, the distinct sound of voices. She couldn’t make out any individual words or people yet though. So, she kept moving, although it felt like she had been swallowed by a beast and was heading to the stomach, where she would be digested. She mentally applauded that description and decided to keep it if she needed it for an essay.

When she reached the bottom that static was almost unbearably loud. She couldn’t hear anything else because of it. She wasn’t even focusing on the thoughts anymore, it was just breaking into her head. She instinctively rose her hands to her ears and then, when that did nothing, she lowered them again. The entrance to whatever Ann-no, Wadsworth was doing was just around the corner. All she had to do was look. 

And so, she did.

And nothing could have prepared her for what she saw.

It looked like someone had crossed a hospital with a mad scientist’s lab. All the awake people looked around sixth or seventh year and they were all wearing white lab coats, latex gloves, and face masks. All the sleeping kids were lain on beds which they were strapped to. They all had their eyes open, but, like the boy had thought, it was like they were in some sort of trance.

Half of the ‘scientists’ were attending the sleeping kids, waving wands over them, checking them, and the like. The other half, were standing at some rows of benches with cauldrons and books lain across them. They seemed to be making potions, what their use was, she couldn’t guess. She saw some of the ‘patients’ drinking the potions. 

The place seemed to be bigger than this one chamber. There were doors on some of the walls and Chloe saw a few people going through them, so, obviously there was more. She did a rough count of the sleeping kids. There was at least 50 of them. She looked for her friends, not sure if she wanted to be able to find them or not.

She found Frank on one of the beds, sitting with his eyes staring into the distance. No one was watching him at that specific moment in time. However, she could not find Mark. She found that not seeing him was definitely worse. The static roared in her ears and she felt paralysed. 

Then someone saw her. They turned their head from their station and made direct eye contact with her. It felt like she had been shot by electricity. She couldn’t see any part of their face besides their eyes, which seemed to grow in size when they fully registered that she was there. They rose a finger to point in her direction and shouted.

“Hey!” Chloe saw the two options in her head. Run up the stairs and hope that she could get away or get caught immediately. If she hadn’t panicked, then maybe, she could have gotten away. But shock consumed her, and she just stood frozen. 

Everyone else in the lab looked up. She saw the moment that they all recognised that she was there. Several of them moved to grab her. She backed up a step and one of them barked

“Don’t move.” She waited until three of them were in front of her, wands pointing at her face.  
“Who the hell are you?” One asked. One of the others scoffed.  
“Who cares? Just wipe her memory and send her home.” She reached for her wand, about to fight back as the first speaker nodded at the second’s suggestion. Then, a calm but firm voice spoke out.

“What’s going on over there?”  
She didn’t know whether to be glad or terrified that Wadsworth was here. One of the people turned to her.

“There’s an intruder.” His voice quivered slightly and Chloe wondered if she might not be the only one scared of Wadsworth.   
When Wadsworth replied, her voice was louder, angrier.  
“What? Who?”

“I don’t know Doctor. It’s a girl.” Chloe heard footsteps across the tiles. The static was gone now, now that she had been pulled into the chamber, now there were just the voices, clamouring for attention.

She had thought that she had seen Wadsworth at her scariest. But nothing could have prepared Chloe for the cold fury on her face when she saw Chloe.  
“Miss Turner. Of course. Don’t worry about her, I’ll handle it. Go back to your stations.” With every word, Chloe felt doom getting closer. 

The people dispersed, leaving Chloe unprotected in front of Wadsworth who looked her up and down and then spoke.  
“Follow me Miss Turner. We have a lot to discuss.” Chloe knew she had no other option. She thanked herself mentally for telling Rose and Sam where she was, but also telling them not to come. This way, if she disappeared mysteriously, then at least they could still keep going.

The entered into what appeared to be Wadsworth’s office. Wadsworth held out her hand.  
“Give me your wand and then we can talk.” Chloe pulled her wand out. Briefly, the idea of fighting back and leading a one-person resistance out of this place flared in her mind but she pushed it away. She knew it was foolish. She threw Wadsworth her wand, hoping that it would miss. Wadsworth caught it perfectly.

“Well then. It looks like you’ve uncovered my little secret down here. To be honest I didn’t think that you’d care enough about this to actually try and find it, but it appears I underestimated you and you deserve some small congratulations for that.” Chloe bit back a retort. She had to get out of here, and she could only do that by not upsetting Wadsworth.

“Now, obviously I can’t let you leave with an intact memory, so I’m going to need to wipe your mind after our little chat.” Chloe couldn’t imagine what that would feel like. Having a patch in her mind that no one could fill in. She could only imagine that it would be horrible.

“Then what are we going to talk about?” She asked, trying to sound calm, and probably failing.  
Wadsworth laughed.

“Well, if you’ve come this far, then you deserve an explanation.” Chloe was shocked. This had to be a trick. There was no way that Wadsworth would just tell her everything.  
“Why?” She asked. Wadsworth sighed and sat down on the edge of her desk.

“Because I have this ingenious plan, that is full of some of just the most horrible things, and no one to really appreciate it. The AM just like that I’m getting results and all my workers are just so ‘yes men’, ugh, it’s awful. But you, Miss Turner, will give me a reaction. And if you don’t remember it, then at least I will remember your face when I tell you what I’ve done.”

Chloe didn’t know how to feel. Wadsworth was literally going to villain monologue at her. And Chloe couldn’t come up with a dastardly plan to defeat her. She couldn’t do anything. She wasn’t the hero. She was more like the damsel in distress. Why had she ever thought that she could do anything here?

“So, tell me what you know Chloe.” Chloe thought about using silence as a weapon, but what use would that be. So, instead, she told Wadsworth everything. She told her how she knew that Wadsworth had been doing experiments. How she knew that she was called Wadsworth. How she knew that Mark and Frank were a part of it. How she knew that they were all in a trance that made them think their experiences were dreams.

Wadsworth didn’t look impressed. She looked passive, calm, like none of this bothered. She also looked slightly smug, like Chloe’s story was full of gaps that she would be only too happy to fill. When Chloe finished she smiled at Chloe like a dog that had done a trick.  
“Well, aren’t you just so smart. It seems you’re missing a little bit though.”

Wadsworth stood.

“So, yes you are correct. I created a spell to make my patients forget the events of the night, only remembering it all as a strange recurring dream. Another nifty little trick I put in it just recently was the inability for them to speak about any of their experiences. When you started getting curious I decided it would be for the best. 

“See, I started this all up when The AM extended an offer to me through my parents. I was an upcoming student, excelling in her work, holding their beliefs, in the perfect position to do some research. They gave me most of my objectives, although I did add in some of my own curiosities. They wanted me to see if I could take power from Muggleborn children, and give them to other students. 

“There’s also giving them experimental potions, seeing how they affect them. My pet project, was trying to come up in a way to protect from certain spells. Specifically, the Unforgivables. So, we’ve been testing them out a little. We haven’t used the Killing Curse yet though. Too high stakes, I’m afraid. Even for someone as confident as me.”

Chloe felt like throwing up.   
“You tried taking powers from them?” Wadsworth smiled broadly.

“There’s that outrage I was hoping for. And yes, yes, we have tried. And not only have we tried, it’s worked. Only for a few minutes but, it worked.” Wadsworth looked like she had discovered something great. Chloe only felt horror. 

Wadsworth smiled again, but more buissnesslike this time.  
“Ah yes, that felt good. Seeing the shock on your face. It’s nice. But, sadly it can’t last. I’d love to introduce you as a patient, but, you’re just too curious. You’re going to forget everything. The only thing that will come close to a memory of any of this, will be a dark foreboding.”

Wadsworth pulled out her wand and rose it. Chloe tried to bring every moment she could think of to the forefront of her brain, trying to prepare. And then, the door was thrown open.

It was one of the workers. And he looked panicked.

“Doctor Wadsworth! You need to come now. Something went wrong with the Time Turner experiment!” Wadsworth eyes brightened, and Chloe saw fear. Wadsworth turned away and swiftly followed the worker, almost running. She didn’t lock or close the door behind her. Chloe waiter a moment, and then went to go see what was happening.

No one in the main chamber was paying attention to her at all. Most of them were packing up hurriedly. Some crowded around the doorway to what Chloe assumed was the Time Turner experiment. Chloe pushed through them. Everyone’s thoughts were racing and she could only pick out words. (Mess. Sparks. Dead. Awake. Scared. Dead. Hurt. What?) Her heart was beating quicker and quicker by the moment.

When she finally saw the scene, her heart stopped.

There were two people on beds. One was a blonde girl who was lying limply. The other was a very awake, very confused, very scared, Mark Bryant.

Wadsworth was shaking her head. The workers looked terrified. Mark was shouting.  
“Where the hell am I? What’s going on?” He noticed the other girl.

“Camille? What’s wrong with her? Why isn’t she breathing?” He looked up and met Chloe’s eyes.

“Chloe? What’s happening?” She wanted to answer, to help him, but her words stuck in her throat. Wadsworth looked up, raising her wand, and Chloe took a step back. 

But then Wadsworth’s arm faltered. Her face went pale. Mark’s eyes left Chloe, and met those of someone behind her.  
They spoke at the same time.

“Joan?”

“Joanie?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Camille's dead, Mark woke up, Joan's here, and Chloe knows all! But, because I'm mildly evil, you won't get to see what happens next in the next update. The next update will be featuring a new POV, and it will be showing what's happening to them as Chloe does her sleuthing. I will try to get it out quicker although as I am doing Nanowrimo for a different project, that might affect things a bit, so, if it's late, that's why. Until next time!

**Author's Note:**

> Sooooo that's the first chapter. Please leave a kudos and/or a comment if you enjoyed it and I will return with a new chapter at some point in the near future (hopefully).


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